Abstract—
Hydrogen is a key energy-yielding substrate for microbial processes in the deep biosphere. Fracture water of a deep gold mine in South Africa is a well-known example of the ecosystem based on a hydrogenotrophic sulfate reducer, “Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator.” The present work reports the cultivation and pure culture isolation of a novel obligate chemolithotroph reducing sulfate during growth on hydrogen or formate. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene of the strain Tu-874 showed its clusterization with its closest cultured relative, “Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator.” However, the low 16S rRNA sequence similarity of 88.95% indicates that the organism represents a new taxonomic group above the species level.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank R. Latyntsev for his assistance in collecting the water and mat samples in Tyumen.
Funding
The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 18-14-00130.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies involving animals or human participants performed by any of the authors.
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I.A. Panova and M.A. Grigoriev cultured the organism; L.B. Glukhova isolated and amplified DNA; M.R. Avakyan carried out phylogenetic analysis; and O.V. Karnachuk planned the experiments, collected the samples, and wrote the article.
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Translated by P. Sigalevich
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Panova, I.A., Grigoriev, M.A., Glukhova, L.B. et al. Isolation of a Novel Chemolithothrophic Sulfate-Reducing Firmicute from a Tyumen Thermal Borehole. Microbiology 90, 397–400 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026261721030097
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026261721030097