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Novel halophilic aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs from a Canadian hypersaline spring system

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Abstract

The first enumeration of cultivable obligately aerobic phototrophic bacteria from a terrestrial saline spring was accomplished in the East German Creek system (salinity ∼6%), near Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba, Canada. Occurring at densities up to 3.3 × 107 CFU/ml of sample, aerobic phototrophs comprised 15–36% of the total cultivable bacterial population in the diatom- and chlorophyte-dominated aerobic microbial mats. Many of the representative strains isolated for phenotypic characterization and phylogenetic analysis possessed <96% 16S rDNA sequence overlap with published species, including an obligately aerobic phototrophic gammaproteobacterium displaying only 92.9% 16S rDNA sequence similarity to Congregibacter litoralis. The springs yielded the most highly halotolerant aerobic anoxygenic phototroph yet recorded, strain EG11, which grew with 26% NaCl.

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Acknowledgments

Kathleen Londry and Pascal Badiou kindly provided identification of Percursaria percursa. This research was supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) operating grant held by V. Yurkov.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Manitoba, 418 Buller Building, R3T 2N2, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Julius T. Csotonyi & Vladimir V. Yurkov

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

    Jolantha Swiderski & Erko Stackebrandt

Authors
  1. Julius T. Csotonyi
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  2. Jolantha Swiderski
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  3. Erko Stackebrandt
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  4. Vladimir V. Yurkov
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Correspondence to Vladimir V. Yurkov.

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Communicated by A. Driessen.

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Csotonyi, J.T., Swiderski, J., Stackebrandt, E. et al. Novel halophilic aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs from a Canadian hypersaline spring system. Extremophiles 12, 529–539 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-008-0156-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-008-0156-8

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