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Porphyrobacter meromictius sp. nov., an Appendaged Bacterium, That Produces Bacteriochlorophyll a

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Abstract

Four Gram-negative strains (ML4T, ML19, ML31, ML32) of nonmotile, appendaged, budding bacteria were isolated from the meromictic Mahoney Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The strains were red to brown-red in color and produced bacteriochlorophyll a incorporated into photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes. Phylogenetic analysis has placed these strains within the class Alphaproteobacteria, with the closest relatives being members of the genera Erythrobacter, Porphyrobacter, and Erythromicrobium. Morphological features warrant their inclusion within the genus Porphyrobacter and these strains can be readily distinguished from other species of this genus on the basis of a mesophilic temperature range, a broad pH range, and tolerance to extremely high NaCl and Na2SO4 concentrations, in keeping with the environment from which they were isolated, a Na2SO4-dominated meromictic lake. These isolates utilize a variety of organic substrates for aerobic chemoheterotrophic growth and do not grow under anaerobic conditions, in either the presence or the absence of light. All strains require vitamin B12, and strains ML4T and ML19 require biotin. The DNA G + C contents ranged from 62.2 to 64.9 mol%. Phenotypic and phyletic data support the classification of strains ML4T, ML19, ML31, and ML32 as a novel Porphyrobacter species for which the name Porphyrobacter meromictius sp. nov. is proposed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants from the NSERC (Canada) to V.Y. and J.T.B. We thank K. J. Hall and T. G. Northcote for collection of samples from Mahoney Lake and H. G. Trüper for assistance with the nomenclature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, The University of Manitoba, 422 Buller Building, R3T 2N2, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Christopher Rathgeber, Natalia Yurkova & Vladimir Yurkov

  2. DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, D-38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt & Peter Schumann

  3. Bio-Imaging Facility, The University of British Columbia, 517-6270 University Boulevard, V6T 1Z4, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Elaine Humphrey

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of British Columbia, 2503 Health Sciences Mall, V6T 1Z3, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    J. Thomas Beatty

Authors
  1. Christopher Rathgeber
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  2. Natalia Yurkova
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  3. Erko Stackebrandt
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  4. Peter Schumann
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  5. Elaine Humphrey
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  6. J. Thomas Beatty
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  7. Vladimir Yurkov
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vladimir Yurkov.

Additional information

The EMBL accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains ML4T, ML19, and ML31 are AM271004, AM271002, and AM271003, respectively.

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Rathgeber, C., Yurkova, N., Stackebrandt, E. et al. Porphyrobacter meromictius sp. nov., an Appendaged Bacterium, That Produces Bacteriochlorophyll a. Curr Microbiol 55, 356–361 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-007-0275-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-007-0275-y

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