Isolation And Identification of Cyanobacteria from Selected Caves of Bulabog Putian National Park Dingle, Iloilo, Western Visayas, Philippines

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are a photosynthetic, gram-negative, and diverse group of prokaryotic organisms inhabiting a wide range of habitats, including caves. This study was aimed to isolate and identify cyanobacteria in selected caves of Bulabog Putian National Park, Dingle, Iloilo, Western Visayas, Philippines. Six strains of cyanobacteria were identified based on morphology and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The sequence homology search by BLAST program revealed that the closest relative of the six strains were Leptolyngbya sp. (94.62% similarity), Calothrix sp. (97.07% similarity), Chroococcidiopsis cubana (99.21% similarity), Onodrimia javanensis (96.27% simi-larity), Chroakolemma pellucida (94.74% similarity), and Albertania skiophila (98.40% similarity), belonging to Order Chroococcidiopsales, Nostocales, and Syne-chococcales. The phylogenetic tree revealed the taxonomic positions of the six cya-nobacterial strains. Based on the results, six newly identified strains of cyanobacteria have been discovered from the caves of Bulabog Putian National Park which is the only finding reported. Further study, such as the polyphasic approach and other taxonomic characterizations, is needed to describe these new novel taxa of cyanobacteria.