title: Deinococcus indicus sp. nov., an arsenic-resistant bacterium from an aquifer in West Bengal, India.
abstract: An arsenic- and radiation-resistant bacterium, strain Wt/1a(T), was isolated from water from an arsenic-contaminated aquifer located in the Chakdah district of West Bengal, India. The bacterium stains Gram-negative and is rod-shaped, non-motile, non-sporulating and red-pigmented. Cell-wall peptidoglycan contains ornithine as the diamino acid, MK-8 is the major menaquinone, C(15 : 1) and C(16 : 1) are the major fatty acids and the DNA G+C content of the organism is 65.8 mol%. Based on these phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain Wt/1a(T) was identified as a member of the genus Deinococcus. Strain Wt/1a(T) exhibited maximum 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (95 %) with Deinococcus grandis; however, strain Wt/1a(T) exhibited only 14 % similarity to D. grandis IAM 13005(T) at the DNA-DNA level. Furthermore, strain Wt/1a(T) (compared to D. grandis IAM 13005(T)) is more resistant to arsenate and arsenite, is positive for arginine dihydrolase, utilizes a number of carbon sources and exhibits quantitative differences in fatty acid composition and qualitative differences in lipid composition. Strain Wt/1a(T) is identified as a novel species of the genus Deinococcus, for which the name Deinococcus indicus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Deinococcus indicus is Wt/1a(T) (=MTCC 4913(T)=DSM 15307(T)).
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suresh
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India.
authors.forename: G S N
authors.initials: GSN
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: Geological Survey of India, GSI Complex, DK-6, Sector-II, Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700 091, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sengupta
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shivaji
mesh_terms: D001151:Arsenic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001482:Base Composition; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D034301:Deinococcus / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007194:India; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D001151:Arsenic