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DOI

  • Carmen Falagán
    Exeter University
  • Ana Moya-Beltrán
    Universidad Andrés Bello
  • Matías Castro
    Millennium Nucleus in the Biology of Intestinal Microbiota
  • Raquel Quatrini
    Universidad Andrés Bello
  • D Barrie Johnson

The genus Acidithiobacillus currently includes seven species with validly published names, which fall into two major groups, those that can oxidize ferrous iron and those that do not. All seven species can use zero-valent sulfur and reduced sulfur oxy-anions as electron donors, are obligately chemolithotrophic and acidophilic bacteria with pH growth optima below 3.0. The 16S rRNA gene of a novel strain (CJ-2T) isolated from circum-neutral pH mine drainage showed 95-97 % relatedness to members of the genus Acidithiobacillus. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strains and whole-genome pairwise comparisons between the CJ-2T strain and the reference genomes available for members of the genus Acidithiobacillus confirmed that CJ-2Trepresents a novel species of this genus. CJ-2T is a strict aerobe, oxidizes zero-valent sulfur and reduced inorganic sulfur compounds but does not use ferrous iron or hydrogen as electron donors. The isolate is mesophilic (optimum growth temperature 25-28 °C) and extremely acidophilic (optimum growth pH 3.0), though its pH optimum and maximum were significantly higher than those of non-iron-oxidising acidithiobacilli with validly published names. The major fatty acids of CJ-2T were C18 : 1ω7c, C:16 : 1ω7c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH, C16 : 0 and C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and the major respiratory quinone present was Q8. The name Acidithiobacillussulfuriphilus sp. nov. is proposed, the type strain is CJ-2T (=DSM 105150T=KCTC 4683T).

Keywords

  • Acidithiobacillus/classification, Bacterial Typing Techniques, Base Composition, DNA, Bacterial/genetics, Fatty Acids/chemistry, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Iron, Mining, Nucleic Acid Hybridization, Oxidation-Reduction, Phylogeny, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sulfur/metabolism, Wales, Water Microbiology
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2907-2913
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Systematic Evolutionary Microbiology
Volume69
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2019
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