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Methanobacterium subterraneum sp. nov., a new alkaliphilic, eurythermic and halotolerant methanogen isolated from deep granitic groundwater

¹Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Science, Pushchino-na-Oke, Moscow region, RU-142292, Russia
²Wadsworth Center, Division of Molecular Medicine, New York State Department of Health, Empire State Plaza, and Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public, Health, The University at Albany, Albany, NY 12201-0509, USA
³Göteborg University, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, Department of General and Marine Microbiology, Box 462, Göteborg, S-40530, Sweden

Author for correspondence: Svetlana Kotelnikova. Tel: +46 31 773 25 65. Fax: +46 31 773 25 99. e-mail: svetlana.kotelnikova{at}gmm.gu.se

ABSTRACT

Deep subterranean granitic aquifers have not been explored regarding methanogens until now. Three autotrophic methane-producing Archaea were isolated from deep granitic groundwater at depths of 68, 409 and 420 m. These organisms were non-motile, small, thin rods, 0·1-0·15 µm in diameter, and they could use hydrogen and carbon dioxide or formate as substrates for growth and methanogenesis. One of the isolates, denoted A8p, was studied in detail. It grew with a doubling time of 2·5 h under optimal conditions (20–40 °C, pH 7·8–8·8 and 0·2–1·2 M NaCI). Strain A8p is eurythermic as it grew between 3·6 and 45 °C. It was resistant to up to 20 mg bacitracin I^-1. The G+C content was 54·5 mol%, as determined by thermal denaturation. Phylogenetic studies based upon 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons placed the isolate A8p in the genus Methanobacterium. Phenotypic and phylogenetic characters indicate that the alkaliphilic, halotolerant strain A8p represents a new species. We propose the name Methanobacterium subterraneum for this species, and strain A8p (= DSM 11074^T) is the type strain.

Key Words: Methanobacterium subterraneum sp. nov. • alkaliphile • eurythermy • halotolerance • methanogen

The EMBL/GenBank accession numbers for the nucleotide sequences of strains A8p^T, 3067 and C2BIS are X99044, Y12592 and X99045, respectively.

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