title: Butyrate- and propionate-degrading syntrophs from permanently cold marine sediments in Skan Bay, Alaska, and description of Algorimarina butyrica gen. nov., sp. nov.
abstract: Two anaerobic, psychrotolerant, syntrophic strains were enriched from permanently cold, shallow anoxic marine sediments in Skan Bay, Alaska. One strain, AK-B(T), oxidized butyrate syntrophically and was isolated in defined coculture with a H(2)-using methanogen or in a dixenic coculture that also contained an acetate-scavenging methanogen. The other enrichment culture syntrophically oxidized propionate. The growth of these syntrophic cultures was very slow: approximately 1 year for cocultures of strain AK-B(T) to form colonies and >1 year for the propionate-oxidizing enrichment to form colonies. Neither culture grew axenically when supplied with the catabolic substrates crotonate, pyruvate, malate, or sulfate plus butyrate or propionate. Strain AK-B(T) catabolized iso-butyrate in syntrophic coculture but did not catabolize valerate or caproate. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene sequence suggested that strain AK-B(T) was only distantly related to cultivated sulfate-reducing bacteria, and that this strain represented a new genus. We propose Algorimarina butyrica, with strain AK-B(T) (=OCM 842(T)), as the type strain. This report is the first description of psychrotolerant as well as marine butyrate--and propionate-oxidizing syntrophic organisms.
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kendall
authors.forename: Yitai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Boone
mesh_terms: D000413:Alaska; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002087:Butyrates / Q000378:metabolism*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011422:Propionates / Q000378:metabolism*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D002087:Butyrates; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D011422:Propionates; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S