Abstract

Aims: Antarctica, despite its extreme conditions, harbours a unique ecosystem, including its soil bacterial diversity. This study determines the bacterial composition of soils from four distinct locations in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, namely King George Island (Estrellas Lake, Playa Elefantes), Ardley Island and Deception Island, using the 16S rRNA gene-based metagenomic high-throughput sequencing and analysis approach. Methodology and results: Soils from the four target locations were collected for metagenomic DNA extraction of bacterial DNA. The bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified, sequenced and aligned to those in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Genbank. A total of 31 different bacterial phyla were found in the soil samples. The predominant bacterial phyla in the soils from the four locations were Proteobacteria (39.28%) and Actinobacteria (25.39%). Conclusion, significance and impact of study: These bacterial diversity data add to the existing data on bacterial communities in Antarctic soils by covering formerly unexplored areas in the South Shetland Islands, increasing the accuracy of bacterial population data in these maritime regions.