Diversity of culturable marine bacteria on the coastline of the central area of San Jorge Gulf, Argentina

This study aims to isolate and identify culturable marine bacteria from 4 locations in the San Jorge Gulf. A total of 1,532 strains were isolated using oligotrophic, heterotrophic and hydrocarbon- degrading bacteria media, and identified with reference to bacterial fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles. Gram-negative bacteria were the most abundant, Pseudoalteromonas comprised 17% of the isolated bacteria, followed by Pseudomonas, with 11.14%. The Gram-positive bacteria genera identified were Staphylococcus, Bacillus and Micrococcus. In addition, those bacteria able to degrade hydrocarbons were: Arthrobacter, Dietzia, Acinetobacter, Microbacterium, Micrococcus, Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Pseudoalteromonas.