Erciyes University (ERÜ) Veterinary Faculty Pathology Department Faculty Member Prof. Latife ÇAKIR BAYRAM participated in the 3rd Turkish Antarctic Expedition to Antarctica in 2018-2019 Antarctic season, as part of a bilateral cooperation, with her project named “The cytological, microbiological and ophthalmic evaluation of samples of ocular surface from the Antarctic Peninsula penguins.” As part of the project, she conducted studies at the Antarctic Peninsula coasts, Chilean Science Bases and research vessel. As scientific samples, ocular surface samples were collected from 100 penguins in total.
Prof. ÇAKIR noticed an exophytic tissue in the right eye of a Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) and collected samples from its both eyes for microbiological and pathological examinations. Upon returning to Turkey, the samples were examined microbiologically at ERÜ Veterinary Faculty Microbiology Laboratory and pathologically at ERÜ Veterinary Faculty Pathology Laboratory.
During the microbiological analysis of the samples, 5 different bacterias were isolated from the right eye of the penguin. For the identification of the bacteria, phenotypic and molecular methods were employed. As a result of 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses and phylogenetic analyses, it was determined that these bacteria had less than 98.75% similarity to the sequence results in the GenBank database, and these 5 bacteria obtained had the potential to be new breeds, species or taxa that have not been identified in the world, yet. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis results of the bacteria have been registered to GenBank. Studies for naming these bacteria at breed and species levels are going on, and they will be named by Turkish researchers for the first time in the world. An article including preliminary data of the bacteria was written to assess the microbiological and pathological findings in detail and it has been going through review process at a journal with Science Citation Index.
These 5 bacteria with a potential of being new breeds, species or taxa are from the eye samples of one penguin only and analyses on 100 ocular surface samples collected are going on.
Note: All the studies within the scope of the Turkish Antarctic Expeditions to Antarctica are conducted within the framework of the Antarctic-Environmental Protocol in compliance with proper procedures; thus, no living creature is harmed in the studies, and all national and international documents, including ethical permissions, pass through approval before the expeditions.
