Abstract
Enrichments from an estuarine sediment with crotonate as substrate resulted in the isolation of a motile, gram-negative, obligately anaerobic rod with pointed ends, designated strain 10cr1. The organism was asporogenous, did not reduce sulfur, sulfate, thiosulfate, nitrate, oxygen or fumarate, and had a mol %G+C ratio of 29. Strain 10cr1 was able to ferment crotonate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, lactate, pyruvate, and poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB). Acetate, propionate, butyrate, CO2 and H2 were the fermentation products. When grown on PHB there was accumulation of 3-hydroxybutyrate once growth had ceased, indicating degradation of PHB to the monomer. The 3-hydroxybutyrate formed during growth of the culture was fermented to acetate, butyrate and H2. Experimental evidence suggested the production of an extracellular PHB depolymerase. The cells were not attached to the PHB granules. This is the first isolation of an anaerobic bacterium capable of degrading exogenous PHB. This strain is described as a new species, Ilyobacter delafieldii sp. nov., and strain 10cr1 (=DSM 5704) is designated as the type (and at present, only) strain.
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Abbreviations
- G+C:
-
guanine plus cytosine
- OD:
-
optical density
- PHB:
-
poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid
- μ:
-
specific growth rate
- HPLC:
-
high-performance liquid chromatography
- YE:
-
yeast extract
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Janssen, P.H., Harfoot, C.G. Ilyobacter delafieldii sp. nov., a metabolically restricted anaerobic bacterium fermenting PHB. Arch. Microbiol. 154, 253–259 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00248964
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00248964