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Influence of salts and pH on growth and activity of a novel facultatively alkaliphilic, extremely salt-tolerant, obligately chemolithoautotrophic sufur-oxidizing Gammaproteobacterium Thioalkalibacter halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. from South-Western Siberian soda lakes

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Abstract

A chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacterium (SOB) strain ALCO 1 capable of growing at both near-neutral and extremely alkaline pH was isolated from hypersaline soda lakes in S-W Siberia (Altai, Russia). Strain ALCO 1 represents a novel separate branch within the halothiobacilli in the Gammaproteobacteria, which, so far, contained only neutro-halophilic SOB. On the basis of its unique phenotypic properties and distant phylogeny, strain ALCO 1 is proposed as a new genus and species Thioalkalibacter halophilus gen. nov. sp. nov. ALCO 1 was able to grow within a broad range of salinity (0.5–3.5 M of total sodium) with an optimum at around 1 M Na+, and pH (7.2–10.2, pHopt at around 8.5). Na+ was required for sulfur-dependent respiration in ALCO 1. The neutral (NaCl)-grown chemostat culture had a much lower maximum growth rate (μmax), respiratory activity and total cytochrome c content than its alkaline-grown counterpart. The specific concentration of osmolytes (ectoine and glycine-betaine) produced at neutral pH and 3 M NaCl was roughly two times higher than at pH 10 in soda. Altogether, strain ALCO 1 represents an interesting chemolithoautotrophic model organism for comparative investigations of bacterial adaptations to high salinity and pH.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the NWO-RFBR (grant 47.011.2004.010), RFBR (grants 07-04-00153 and 05-04-49504), by the Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Molecular and Cell Biology” and by the Program for Excellence in Research of Romanian Ministry for Research and Education (CEEX-ET, Nr. 5913/18.09.2006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babes-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Horia L. Banciu

  2. S. N. Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    Dimitry Y. Sorokin & Tatyana P. Tourova

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Dimitry Y. Sorokin, J. Gijs Kuenen & Gerard Muyzer

  4. Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Meckenheimer Allee 168, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Erwin A. Galinski

  5. A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Vorob’evy Gory, 119992, Moscow, Russia

    Maria S. Muntyan

Authors
  1. Horia L. Banciu
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  2. Dimitry Y. Sorokin
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  3. Tatyana P. Tourova
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  4. Erwin A. Galinski
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  5. Maria S. Muntyan
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  6. J. Gijs Kuenen
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  7. Gerard Muyzer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Horia L. Banciu.

Additional information

Communicated by G. Antranikian.

Nucleotide sequence accession number: The GenBank/EMBL accession number of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain ALCO1T is EU124668.

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Banciu, H.L., Sorokin, D.Y., Tourova, T.P. et al. Influence of salts and pH on growth and activity of a novel facultatively alkaliphilic, extremely salt-tolerant, obligately chemolithoautotrophic sufur-oxidizing Gammaproteobacterium Thioalkalibacter halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. from South-Western Siberian soda lakes. Extremophiles 12, 391–404 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-008-0142-1

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