Correspondence

A novel purple sulfur bacterium, strain WS T, was isolated from a microbial mat from an estuary of the White Sea. Individual cells are coccoid shaped, motile by flagella and do not contain gas vesicles. The mean cell diameter is 1?85 mm (range 1?5–2?0 mm). Cell suspensions exhibit a purple–violet co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ra Rabold, Vladimir M. Gorlenko, Johannes F. Imhoff
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.331.5406
http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/content/56/8/1945.full.pdf
Description
Summary:A novel purple sulfur bacterium, strain WS T, was isolated from a microbial mat from an estuary of the White Sea. Individual cells are coccoid shaped, motile by flagella and do not contain gas vesicles. The mean cell diameter is 1?85 mm (range 1?5–2?0 mm). Cell suspensions exhibit a purple–violet colour. They contain bacteriochlorophyll a and carotenoids of the rhodopinal series as photosynthetic pigments. The novel bacterium is an anoxygenic photoautotroph, using sulfide, thiosulfate, sulfite and elemental sulfur as electron donors for photosynthesis and is capable of photoassimilating several organic carbon sources in the presence of carbonate and a reduced sulfur source (sulfide and/or thiosulfate). Sulfur globules, formed during oxidation of sulfide, are stored transiently inside the cells. Optimal salinity and pH for growth are at 0?5–2?0 % NaCl and pH 7?0–7?5. The DNA base composition of strain WS T is 61?8 mol % G+C. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the new isolate belongs to the genus Thiorhodococcus, with Thiorhodococcus minor CE2203 T as the nearest relative (sequence similarity of 97?3 %). Several distinct differences from described species necessitate the description of a novel species. Thiorhodococcus mannitoliphagus sp. nov. is the proposed name, with strain WS T (=ATCC BAA-1228 T =VKM B-2393 T) as the type strain.