Nutritional flexibility of oligotrophic and copiotrophic Antarctic bacteria with respect to organic substrates

The nutritional flexibility of oligotrophic and copiotrophic bacteria from an Antarctic freshwater lake sediment was investigated. Bacteria isolated on plates of oligotrophic and copiotrophic media were replica plated onto media containing different substrates, and their ability to utilise the different substrates was determined. The oligotrophs were shown to be able to utilise a significantly broader range of organic substrates than the copiotrophs, consistent with the idea that nutritional flexibility is adaptive for oligotrophic bacteria.