Clostridium tunisiense sp. nov., a new proteolytic, sulfur-reducing bacterium isolated from an olive mill wastewater contaminated by phosphogypse.
A new sporulated fermentative bacterium designated strain E1(T) (T=type strain), was isolated from an anaerobic mud of an olive mill wastewater basin contaminated by phosphogypse produced by a Tunisian factory. Strain E1(T) was a motile Gram-positive slightly curved rod with spherical terminal spore swelling the cell. It grew between 18 degrees C and 43 degrees C with an optimum at 37 degrees C and pH 7.8 (range 5.5-8.7), without NaCl (range 0-3%). Strain E1(T) was a chemoorganotrophic anaerobic bacterium fermenting only proteins and amino acids. Yeast extract was required for growth. Elemental sulfur was used as terminal electron acceptor. The G+C content of the DNA was 32.6 mol%. The closest phylogenetical relatives of strain E1(T) were Clostridium thiosulfatireducens and C. subterminale (97.3% similarity for partial rRNA gene sequences). DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain E1(T) and both species were 17% and 20.8%, respectively. On the basis of differences in genotypic and phenotypic characteristics, strain E1(T) (DSM 15206(T), CIP 107666(T)) is proposed as the type strain of a new species, C. tunisiense sp. nov. GenBank accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain E1(T) is AY187622.
Thabet
Olfa Ben Dhia
OB
Laboratoire de Microbiologie IRD, UR 101 Extrêmophiles, IFR-BAIM, Universités de Provence et de la Méditerranée, ESIL case 925, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France.
Fardeau
Marie-Laure
ML
Joulian
Catherine
C
Thomas
Pierre
P
Hamdi
Moktar
M
Garcia
Jean-Louis
JL
Ollivier
Bernard
B