Meeting Abstract
79.1 Friday, Jan. 7 The distribution of Acanthamoeba spp. in marine and estuarine sediments from the coast of France MUNSON, D.A.; Washington College, Chestertown, MD dmunson2@washcoll.edu
A previous study (Munson et al., Oceanis, 37, 2007) illustrated the impact of pollution on the incidence of Acanthamoeba in North Sea coastal sediments. Acanthamoeba is a ubiquitous soil amoeba and its distribution is often associated with sewage pollution and/or nutrient runoff from land. Some species in the genus are opportunistic pathogens of humans. This investigation focused on amoebae distribution along the coast of France and the mouth of the Seine estuary. In March of 2008 and 2009 sediments were collected from 10 sites along the French coast and were cultured at room temperature and at 37oC on non-nutrient agar seeded with Klebsiella aerogenes. All room temperature cultures exhibited amoebic growth and 70% (7/10 sediment samples) showed growth at elevated temperatures. In this investigation sampled sites did not show a great difference in amoebae diversity. Commonly isolated species were A. polyphaga, A. castellanii, A. rhysodes, and to a lesser degree A. hatchetti. Several other unidentified isolates that belonged to either Group II or Group III of the genus were also commonly present.
