| dc.description.abstract | Bacteria play an important role in aquatic ecosystems decomposing organic matter which is a key
process in the microbial food web i.e. nutrient and Carbon cycles. Furthermore, this decomposition
process, which is basically depending on bacterial ability to hydrolyze nutrient in aquatic
environment, is very important for the bioremediation process of polluted water. Indonesia is the
largest archipelago in the world with sea area about 81% of the total area of the country. Many
other water areas which are not included in this sea area flow throughout the country i.e. rivers,
lakes and lagoons. Consequently, research on aquatic ecology and environmental protection is of
utmost importance to Indonesia. Considering the important of bacteria in microbial aquatic food
web, the analysis of natural bacterial assemblages and their activities would improve this area of
research in indonesian microbial (aquatic) ecology which is very limited so far. This research is
based on following hypothesis i.e. Carbon utilization of bacteria depend on their diversity (1), and
therefore influence bacterial activity especially their hydrolytic activities (2). The objective of this
research is therefore to investigate bacterial diversity related to its substrate utilization profile
(Carbon substrates) in the coastal region of South Jember. Molecular diversity of isolates was
studied by observing DNA profile of isolates after BOX-Polymerase Chain Reaction (BOX-PCR).
The substrate utilization pattern kit BIOLOG GN2 was used to test the ability of isolates to respire
in 95 substrates, incl. carbohydrates, amino acids, organic acids and selected polymers
simultaneously producing a kind of metabolic fingerprint. 126 bacteria were isolated from the
coastal region of South Jember Indonesia. 4 of 8 bacteria with diversity in genetic profiles showed
diversity in their metabolic fingerprint as well. These 4 isolates were able to use polymer substrate
in the BIOLOG GN indicating its potential used to produce hydrolytic enzymes which are important
for material decomposition in the bioremediation process in aquatic ecosystem. | en_US |
