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Desulfurispirillum alkaliphilum gen. nov. sp. nov., a novel obligately anaerobic sulfur- and dissimilatory nitrate-reducing bacterium from a full-scale sulfide-removing bioreactor

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Abstract

Strain SR 1T was isolated under anaerobic conditions using elemental sulfur as electron acceptor and acetate as carbon and energy source from the Thiopaq bioreactor in Eerbeek (The Netherlands), which is removing H2S from biogas by oxidation to elemental sulfur under oxygen-limiting and moderately haloalkaline conditions. The bacterium is obligately anaerobic, using elemental sulfur, nitrate and fumarate as electron acceptors. Elemental sulfur is reduced to sulfide through intermediate polysulfide, while nitrate is dissimilatory reduced to ammonium. Furthermore, in the presence of nitrate, strain SR 1T was able to oxidize limited amounts of sulfide to elemental sulfur during anaerobic growth with acetate. The new isolate is mesophilic and belongs to moderate haloalkaliphiles, with a pH range for growth (on acetate and nitrate) from 7.5 to 10.25 (optimum 9.0), and a salt range from 0.1 to 2.5 M Na+ (optimum 0.4 M). According to phylogenetic analysis, SR 1T is a member of a deep bacterial lineage, distantly related to Chrysiogenes arsenatis (Macy et al. 1996). On the basis of the phenotypic and genetic data, the novel isolate is placed into a new genus and species, Desulfurispirillum alkaliphilum (type strain SRT = DSM 18275 = UNIQEM U250).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NWO-RFBR (47.011.2004.010), STW (WBC 5939), Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Molecular and Cell Biology” and RFBR (04-04-48647). We are grateful to P. Luimes for providing samples from the Thiopaq bioreactor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Prospect 60-let Octyabrya 7/2, 117811, Moscow, Russia

    D. Yu. Sorokin

  2. Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands

    D. Yu. Sorokin, M. Foti & G. Muyzer

  3. DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Inhoffenstrasse 7B, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    B. J. Tindall

Authors
  1. D. Yu. Sorokin
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  2. M. Foti
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  3. B. J. Tindall
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  4. G. Muyzer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. Yu. Sorokin.

Additional information

Communicated by K. Horikoshi.

Nucleotide sequence accession number: the GenBank/EMBL accession number of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain SR 1T is DQ666683.

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Sorokin, D.Y., Foti, M., Tindall, B.J. et al. Desulfurispirillum alkaliphilum gen. nov. sp. nov., a novel obligately anaerobic sulfur- and dissimilatory nitrate-reducing bacterium from a full-scale sulfide-removing bioreactor. Extremophiles 11, 363–370 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-006-0048-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-006-0048-8

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