Publications

4522

A bacterial strain named IGB-41T was isolated from a soil sample from an ant hill near Stuttgart, Germany. The strain was Gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile and facultatively anaerobic. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA grouped the strain IGB-41T within the class Betaproteobacteria into the family Neisseriaceae together with Silvimonas amylolytica NBRC 103189T, Silvimonas iriomotensis NBRC 103188T and Silvimonas terrae KM-45T as the closest relatives with sequence similarities of 96.7, 96.6 and 96.1 %, respectively. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was determined to be 61.5 mol% and quinone analysis revealed Q-8 as the only detectable quinone. Major cellular fatty acids were identified as C16 : 0, summed feature 3 (iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and/or C16 : 1ω7c) and C18 : 1ω7c . Strain IGB-41T was unique in harbouring phosphoaminolipids, aminolipids and glycoaminolipids when compared with Silvimonas amylolytica NBRC 103189T in polar lipid analysis. On the basis of the physiological, phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of strain IGB-41T, we suggest that the novel strain should be assigned to a new genus Amantichitinum and novel species Amantichitinum ursilacus. The type species of the genus Amantichitinum is Amantichitinum ursilacus and the type strain is IGB-41T ( = DSM 23761T = CIP 110167T).

ABSTRACT We report the draft genome sequence of “ Candidatus Methanomethylophilus alvus” Mx1201, a methanogen present in the human gut. It was enriched from human feces under anaerobic conditions with methanol as the substrate. Its circular genome, of around 1.7 Mb, contains genes needed for methylotrophic methanogenesis from methanol and tri-, di-, and monomethylamine.

ABSTRACT The recently described bacterium “ Candidatus Methylomirabilis oxyfera” couples the oxidation of the important greenhouse gas methane to the reduction of nitrite. The ecological significance of “ Ca . Methylomirabilis oxyfera” is still underexplored, as our ability to identify the presence of this bacterium is thus far limited to DNA-based techniques. Here, we investigated the lipid composition of “ Ca . Methylomirabilis oxyfera” to identify new, gene-independent biomarkers for the environmental detection of this bacterium. Multiple “ Ca . Methylomirabilis oxyfera” enrichment cultures were investigated. In all cultures, the lipid profile was dominated up to 46% by the fatty acid (FA) 10-methylhexadecanoic acid (10MeC 16:0 ). Furthermore, a unique FA was identified that has not been reported elsewhere: the monounsaturated 10-methylhexadecenoic acid with a double bond at the Δ7 position (10MeC 16:1Δ7 ), which comprised up to 10% of the total FA profile. We propose that the typical branched fatty acids 10MeC 16:0 and 10MeC 16:1Δ7 are key and characteristic components of the lipid profile of “ Ca . Methylomirabilis oxyfera.” The successful detection of these fatty acids in a peatland from which one of the enrichment cultures originated supports the potential of these unique lipids as biomarkers for the process of nitrite-dependent methane oxidation in the environment.