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Identification of iron-reducing Thermus strains as Thermus scotoductus

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Abstract

Thermus strain SA-01, previously isolated from a deep (3.2 km) South African gold mine, is closely related to Thermus strains NMX2 A.1 and VI-7 (previously isolated from thermal springs in New Mexico, USA, and Portugal, respectively). Thermus strains SA-01 and NMX2 A.1 have also been shown previously to grow using nitrate, Fe(III), Mn(IV) or SO as terminal electron acceptors and to be capable of reducing Cr(VI), U(VI), Co(III), and the quinone-containing compound anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate. The objectives of this study were to determine the phylogenetic positions of the three known metal-reducing Thermus strains and to determine the phylogenetic significance of metal reduction within the genus Thermus. Phylogenetic analyses of 16S rDNA sequences, BOX PCR genomic fingerprinting, and DNA–DNA reassociation analyses indicated that these strains belong to the previously described genospecies T. scotoductus. The morphologies and lipid fatty acid profiles of these metal-reducing strains are consistent with their identification as T. scotoductus; however, the T. scotoductus strains tested in this study evinced a wide intraspecies variability in some other phenotypic traits, e.g., carbon substrate utilization and pigmentation. Iron reduction occurred in all strains of T. scotoductus tested except the mixotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing strain IT-7254. Thermus strains belonging to other species did not reduce Fe(III) to Fe(II) or reduced it only poorly.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mary McHale and Gwendolyn R. Drake for technical assistance. This research was supported by grant no. EAR9978267 from the National Science Foundation, Life in Extreme Environments (LExEn) Program, and by grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Astrobiology Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL , 32306-4300, USA

    D. L. Balkwill

  2. Department of Biology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM , 87801, USA

    T. L. Kieft

  3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA , 99352, USA

    T. Tsukuda, H. M. Kostandarithes & J. K. Fredrickson

  4. Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ , 08544, USA

    T. C. Onstott

  5. AEA Technology Environment, National Environmental Technology Centre, Culham, OX14 3DB, Abingdon , Oxon, UK

    S. Macnaughton

  6. Center for Environmental Biotechnology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN , 37932, USA

    J. Bownas

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  1. D. L. Balkwill
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Correspondence to D. L. Balkwill.

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Communicated by J. Wiegel

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Balkwill, D.L., Kieft, T.L., Tsukuda, T. et al. Identification of iron-reducing Thermus strains as Thermus scotoductus . Extremophiles 8, 37–44 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-003-0357-0

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