Paludibaculum fermentans gen. nov., sp. nov., a facultative anaerobe capable of dissimilatory iron reduction from subdivision 3 of the Acidobacteria A facultatively anaerobic, non-pigmented, non-spore-forming bacterium was isolated from a littoral wetland of a boreal lake located on Valaam Island, northern Russia, and designated strain P105 T . Cells of this isolate were Gram-negative, non-motile rods coated by S-layers with p2 lattice symmetry. Sugars were the preferred growth substrates. Under anoxic conditions, strain P105 T was capable of fermentation and dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction. End products of fermentation were acetate, propionate and H 2 . Strain P105 T was a mildly acidophilic, mesophilic organism, capable of growth at pH 4.0-7.2 (optimum pH 5.5-6.0) and at 4-35 6C (optimum at 20-28 6C). The major fatty acids were iso-C 15 : 0 and C 16 : 1 v7c; the cells also contained significant amounts of 13,16-dimethyl octacosanedioic acid (isodiabolic acid). The major polar lipids were phosphocholine and phosphoethanolamine; the quinone was MK-8. The G+C content of the DNA was 60.5 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain P105 T belongs to subdivision 3 of the Acidobacteria and is only distantly related (90 % sequence similarity) to the only currently characterized member of this subdivision, Bryobacter aggregatus. The novel isolate differs from Bryobacter aggregatus in its cell morphology and ability to grow under anoxic conditions and in the presence of iron-and nitrate-reducing capabilities as well as quinone and polar lipid compositions. These differences suggest that strain P105 T represents a novel genus and species, for which the name Paludibaculum fermentans gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain of Paludibaculum fermentans is P105 T (5DSM 26340 T 5VKM B-2878 T ).Members of the phylum Acidobacteria represent one of the dominant bacterial groups in northern acidic wetlands (Dedysh et al., 2006;Dedysh, 2011;Pankratov et al., 2011;Lin et al., 2012;Serkebaeva et al., 2013). As revealed by molecular surveys, these bacteria inhabit both oxic and anoxic peat layers and mostly belong to subdivisions 1 and 3 of the Acidobacteria (Lin et al., 2012;Serkebaeva et al., 2013). The proportion of 16S rRNA gene sequences that can be assigned to taxonomically characterized members of the Acidobacteria is significantly higher in the surface layer than in the subsurface peat, indicating a major lack of knowledge about acidobacteria that thrive in anoxic peat (Serkebaeva et al., 2013). Indeed, with the exception of Telmatobacter bradus and Acidobacterium capsulatum (Pankratov et al., 2012), all currently characterized members of subdivisions 1 and 3 are strict aerobes. This study, therefore, aimed at isolation and characterization of those acidobacteria that inhabit anoxic peat layers of northern wetlands.Samples were collected from the anoxic peat layer (depth of 40-50 cm) of the littoral wetland of a boreal lake located on Valaam Island (61 u 229 N 30 u 569 E) in Lake Ladoga, Republic of Kare...