A new extreme environment for aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs: biological soil crusts.

Biological soil crusts improve the health of arid or semiarid soils by enhancing water content, nutrient relations and mechanical stability, facilitated largely by phototrophic microorganisms. Until recently, only oxygenic phototrophs were known from soil crusts. A recent study has demonstrated the presence of aerobic representatives of Earth's second major photosynthetic clade, the evolutionarily basal anoxygenic phototrophs. Three Canadian soil crust communities yielded pink and orange aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic strains possessing the light-harvesting pigment bacteriochlorophyll a. At relative abundances of 0.1-5.9% of the cultivable bacterial community, they were comparable in density to aerobic phototrophs in other documented habitats. 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed the isolates to be related to Methylobacterium, Belnapia, Muricoccus and Sphingomonas. This result adds a new type of harsh habitat, dry soil environments, to the environments known to support aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs.

A new environment for aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria: biological soil crusts.

Phototrophic microorganisms are critical to the carbon cycling and productivity of biological soil crusts, which enhance water content, nutrient relations and mechanical stability of arid soils. Only oxygen-producing phototrophs, including cyanobacteria and algae, are known from soil crusts, but Earth's second major branch of photosynthetic organisms, the evolutionarily earlier anoxygenic phototrophs, is unreported. We announce the discovery of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in three Canadian soil crust communities. We found in a culture-based study that they comprised 0.1-5.9% of the cultivable bacterial community in moss-, lichen- and cyanobacteria-dominated crust from sand dunes and sandy soils. Comparable in density to aerobic phototrophs in other habitats, the bacteriochlorophyll a-possessing pink and orange isolates were related to species of Methylobacterium (99.0-99.5%), Belnapia (97.4-98.8%), Muricoccus (94.4%) and Sphingomonas (96.6-98.5%), based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Our results demonstrate that proteobacterial anoxygenic phototrophs may be found in dry soil environments, implying desiccation resistance as yet unreported for this group. By utilizing sunlight for part of their energy needs, aerobic phototrophs can accelerate organic carbon cycling in nutrient-poor arid soils. Their effects will be especially important as global climate change enhances soil erosion and consequent nutrient loss.

Novel halophilic aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs from a Canadian hypersaline spring system.

The first enumeration of cultivable obligately aerobic phototrophic bacteria from a terrestrial saline spring was accomplished in the East German Creek system (salinity approximately 6%), near Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba, Canada. Occurring at densities up to 3.3x10(7) CFU/ml of sample, aerobic phototrophs comprised 15-36% of the total cultivable bacterial population in the diatom- and chlorophyte-dominated aerobic microbial mats. Many of the representative strains isolated for phenotypic characterization and phylogenetic analysis possessed <96% 16S rDNA sequence overlap with published species, including an obligately aerobic phototrophic gammaproteobacterium displaying only 92.9% 16S rDNA sequence similarity to Congregibacter litoralis. The springs yielded the most highly halotolerant aerobic anoxygenic phototroph yet recorded, strain EG11, which grew with 26% NaCl.

Anaerobic respiration on tellurate and other metalloids in bacteria from hydrothermal vent fields in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

This paper reports the discovery of anaerobic respiration on tellurate by bacteria isolated from deep ocean (1,543 to 1,791 m) hydrothermal vent worms. The first evidence for selenite- and vanadate-respiring bacteria from deep ocean hydrothermal vents is also presented. Enumeration of the anaerobic metal(loid)-resistant microbial community associated with hydrothermal vent animals indicates that a greater proportion of the bacterial community associated with certain vent fauna resists and reduces metal(loid)s anaerobically than aerobically, suggesting that anaerobic metal(loid) respiration might be an important process in bacteria that are symbiotic with vent fauna. Isolates from Axial Volcano and Explorer Ridge were tested for their ability to reduce tellurate, selenite, metavanadate, or orthovanadate in the absence of alternate electron acceptors. In the presence of metal(loid)s, strains showed an ability to grow and produce ATP, whereas in the absence of metal(loid)s, no growth or ATP production was observed. The protonophore carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone depressed metal(loid) reduction. Anaerobic tellurate respiration will be a significant component in describing biogeochemical cycling of Te at hydrothermal vents.