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Rhodobacter thermarum sp. nov., a novel phototrophic bacterium isolated from sediment of a hot spring

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Abstract

An ovoid to rod-shaped, phototrophic, purple non-sulfur bacterium was isolated from a sediment sample of a hot spring in Tibet, China. Cells of strain YIM 73036T were Gram-stain negative, non-motile and multiplied by binary fission. Strain YIM 73036T grew optimally at pH 7.0–7.5 at 37–45 °C. Growth occurred in 0.5–3.5% (w/v) NaCl. Vitamins were not required for growth. The presence of photosynthesis genes pufL and pufM were shown and photosynthesis pigments were formed. Bacteriochlorophyll α, the bacteriopheophytin and carotenoids were present as photosynthetic pigments. Internal cytoplasmic membranes were of the lamellar type. The organism YIM 73036T was able to grow chemo-organoheterophically, chemo-lithoautotrophically and photo-organoheterotrophically but photo-lithoautotrophic and fermentative growth were not demonstrated. Phylogenetic analysis on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YIM 73036T is closely related to Rhodobacter blasticus ATCC 33485T (96.65% sequence similarity) and clustered with species of the genus Rhodobacter of the family Rhodobacteraceae. Whole-genome sequence analyses based on the average nucleotide BLAST identity (ANI < 82%) indicated that this isolate belongs to a novel species. The genomic DNA G+C content of organism YIM 73036T was determined to be 66.0 mol%. Strain YIM 73036T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C18:1ω7c, C18:1ω7c 11-methyl and C18:0 as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and unidentified phospholipid. Differential phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties, together with the phylogenetic distinctiveness, demonstrated that strain YIM 73036T is distinguishable from other species of the genus Rhodobacter. On the basis of the data presented, strain YIM 73036T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Rhodobacter, for which the name Rhodobacter thermarum sp. nov. [type strain YIM 73036T (= KCTC 52712T = CCTCC AB 2016298T)] is proposed.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor Yu-Guang Zhou (CGMCC, China) and Professor Jung-Sook Lee (KCTC, Korea) for their kindly providing the reference type strains. This work was supported by the Key Project of International Cooperation of Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST, China) (No. 2013DFA31980), Science and Technology Infrastructure work project (No. 2015FY110100), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31470139) and Basic Scientific Research Service Fee Project in Colleges and Universities (No. 17lgjc19). W-J Li was also supported by Guangdong Province Higher Vocational Colleges & Schools Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme (2014). We also acknowledge Molecular Medicine Research Center, Biomedicine Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Tabriz, Iran) for its support.

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Author notes

  1. Inam Ullah Khan, Neeli Habib and Min Xiao have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, People’s Republic of China

    Inam Ullah Khan, Neeli Habib, Xiao-Yang Zhi & Wen-Jun Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Min Xiao, Meng-Meng Li, Wen-Dong Xian & Wen-Jun Li

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Pakistan

    Inam Ullah Khan

  4. Molecular Medicine Research Center Biomedicine Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Mohammad Saeid Hejazi & Vahideh Tarhriz

  5. Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Mohammad Saeid Hejazi

  6. Department of Microbiology, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan

    Neeli Habib

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  1. Inam Ullah Khan
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Contributions

IUK, NH, MX and WJL conducted this study. IUK, NH, MSH, VT and MX performed the experiments. XYZ and WJL supervised the experiments. IUK, NH, MML, and WDX wrote the manuscript. All of the authors assisted in writing the manuscript, discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiao-Yang Zhi or Wen-Jun Li.

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Khan, I.U., Habib, N., Xiao, M. et al. Rhodobacter thermarum sp. nov., a novel phototrophic bacterium isolated from sediment of a hot spring. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 112, 867–875 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-018-01219-7

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