Chen Wu;Li Chunyan;Xiang Fu;Yu Longjiang

;School of Life Science & Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

sulfate-reducing bacteria;desulfotomaculum;pcr;16s rdna;lineages evolution

A novel thermophilic and heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria, strain CW-03, was isolated from crude oil well whose depth was 3.2 kilometer. The bacterium was strictly anaerobic; it does not endure acid and its maximum surviving temperature was 70°C. Many short chain organic compounds can be utilized as electron donors, which were acetate, formate, lactate, propionate, pyruvate, butyrate, succinate, malate, fumarate, valerate, caproate, heptanoate, octanoate, decanoate, tridecanoate, pentadecanoate, palmitate, heptadecanoate or ethanol, while sulfate and sulfite were used as electron acceptors. The following substrates were not utilized: benzoate undecanoate, dodecanoate, tetradecane, propanol, butanol, H_2+CO_2 (80/20%; v/v) and acetate (1mM) +H_2- When lactate was used as electron donors, sulfite and thiosulfate, but not sulfer and nitrate, can be used as electron acceptors. Strain CW-03 was motile, curved rod, Gram-positive, pole flagellum and spore-forming. On the basis of 16S rRNA sequence alignment (accession numbers: AY703032), CW-03 should be included in the genus Desulfotomaculum with BIAST analysis on line. However, some of its physiology and multiple sequence alignments were different from other members of this genus. Therefore, CW-03 should be recognized as a new species, for which we propose the name Desulfotomaculum chinamiddle (Bacteria, Firmicutes, Clostridia, Clostridiales, Peptococcaceae).