Sulfurimonas species (class Campylobacteria, phylum Campylobacterota) were globally distributed and especially predominant in deep‐sea hydrothermal environments. They were previously identified as chemolithoautotrophic sulfur‐oxidizing bacteria (SOB), whereas little is known about their potential in sulfur reduction. In this report, we found that the elemental sulfur reduction is quite common in different species of genus Sulfurimonas. To gain insights into the sulfur reduction mechanism, growth tests, morphology observation, as well as genomic and transcriptomic analyses were performed on a deep‐sea hydrothermal vent bacterium Sulfurimonas sp. NW10. Scanning electron micrographs and dialysis tubing tests confirmed that elemental sulfur reduction occurred without direct contact of cells with sulfur particles while direct access strongly promoted bacterial growth. Furthermore, we demonstrated that most species of Sulfurimonas probably employ both periplasmic and cytoplasmic polysulfide reductases, encoded by genes psrA₁B₁CDE and psrA₂B₂, respectively, to accomplish cyclooctasulfur reduction. This is the first report showing two different sulfur reduction pathways coupled to different energy conservations could coexist in one sulfur‐reducing microorganism, and demonstrates that most bacteria of Sulfurimonas could employ both periplasmic and cytoplasmic polysulfide reductases to perform cyclooctasulfur reduction. The capability of sulfur reduction coupling with hydrogen oxidation may partially explain the prevalenceof Sulfurimonas in deep‐sea hydrothermal vent environments.

中文翻译：

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深海热液喷口弯曲杆菌Sulfurimonas sp。还原元素硫。NW10

磺脲类物种（弯曲杆菌属，弯曲杆菌门属）分布全球，尤其在深海热液环境中占主导地位。它们先前被鉴定为化石自养硫氧化细菌（SOB），但对其硫还原潜力的了解却很少。在该报告中，我们发现元素硫的还原在不同种类的硫尿单胞菌属中非常普遍。为了深入了解硫的还原机理，对深海热液喷口细菌Sulfurimonas进行了生长测试，形态观察以及基因组和转录组学分析sp。NW10。扫描电子显微照片和透析管测试证实，元素硫的减少是在细胞不直接与硫颗粒接触的情况下发生的，而直接进入则强烈促进了细菌的生长。此外，我们证明了大多数种类的硫酸尿症患者可能同时利用了质膜和胞质多硫化物还原酶，这些酶由psrA ₁ B ₁ CDE和psrA ₂ B ₂基因编码分别完成环辛硫还原反应。这是第一份报告，显示了两种不同的硫还原途径与不同的节能方式可以共存于一种还原硫的微生物中，并表明大多数硫酸单胞菌细菌可以同时利用周质和细胞质多硫化物还原酶进行环八硫还原。硫还原能力与氢氧化作用的结合可能部分解释了深海热液喷口环境中硫尿症的流行。