sp. nov., a mesophilic sulfate-reducing deltaproteobacterium isolated from a deep siliceous mudstone formation

Ueno, Akio*; Tamazawa, Satoshi*; Tamamura, Shuji*; Murakami, Takuma*; Kiyama, Tamotsu*; Inomata, Hidenori*; Amano, Yuki   ; Miyakawa, Kazuya   ; Tamaki, Hideyuki*; Naganuma, Takeshi*; Kaneko, Katsuhiko*

A novel mesophilic sulfate-reducing bacterium, designated strain HN2, was isolated from groundwater sampled from the subsurface Miocene Wakkanai Formation located in Horonobe, Hokkaido, Japan. The cells were Gram-negative rods, with motility conferred by a single polar flagellum. The isolate expressed desulfoviridin, but no catalase or oxidase activities was detected. Strain HN2 grew in a temperature range of 5-43 C (optimum, 35 C) and in a pH range of 6.5-7.5 (optimum, pH 7.0-7.3). It used sulfate, thiosulfate, dimethyl sulfoxide, anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate, Fe, and manganese oxide as electron acceptors, but not elemental sulfur, nitrite, or nitrate. The bacterium showed very weak growth with sulfite as the electron acceptor. The strain fermented pyruvate and cysteine in the absence of sulfate, but not malate or succinate. The bacterium did not require NaCl, but tolerated up to 4% NaCl (w/v). Strain HN2 did not require vitamins. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 56.66 mol%. A 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the closest recognized relative of strain HN2 is JS1 (97.0% similarity). The average nucleotide identity (ANI) value between strain HN2 and D. JS1 was 79.8%. Based on the phenotypic and molecular genetic evidence, the isolate is assigned to the new species sp. nov. The type strain is HN2 (=DSM 101010 =NBRC 112213).