Tepidibaculum saccharolyticum gen. nov., sp. nov. a moderately thermophilic, anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium isolated from a terrestrial hot spring.

Abstract

A novel moderately thermophilic, anaerobic bacterium, strain STR9T was isolated from terrestrial hot spring at Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka peninsula, Russia. Cells of strain STR9T were spore-forming motile straight or slightly curved rods 0.3μm in diameter and 1.0-2.0μm in length having a Gram-positive cell-wall structure. The temperature range for growth was 30-58°C, with an optimum at 50°C. The pH range for growth was 5.0-10.5, with an optimum at pH 8.0-9.0. NaCl inhibited growth of the strain STR9T and no growth was evident above 0.5% NaCl (w/v). Several mono-, di-, and polysaccharides as well as beef extract and yeast extract supported growth. The main end products of glucose fermentation were ethanol, acetate, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. The G + C content of DNA of strain STR9T was 40.0mol% (Tm). Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain STR9T belongs to the family Ruminococcaceae, class Clostridia, with less than 93% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to any species with validly published name. We propose to assign strain STR9T to a new species of a novel genus Tepidibaculum saccharolyticum gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is STR9T (= DSM 28577T = VKM B-2882T = UNIQEM STR9T).