Sulfobacillus thermotolerans sp. nov., a thermotolerant, chemolithotrophic bacterium

Abstract

A thermotolerant, Gram-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming, acidophilic bacterium (strain Kr1 T )was isolated from the pulp of a gold-containing sulfide concentrate processed at 40 6C in a gold-recovery plant (Siberia

Adaptive Evolution of Extreme Acidophile Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans Potentially Driven by Horizontal Gene Transfer and Gene Loss

“…Sulfobacillus spp., known as a cohort of mildly thermophilic or thermotolerant acidophiles, are frequently found in various acidic settings worldwide. They are facultative anaerobes that utilize energy and electrons derived from aerobic oxidation of iron and a wide range of inorganic sulfur compounds for the assimilation of organic and/or inorganic carbon, as well as other anabolic metabolisms (30,37,38). According to the annotation results of the KEGG Automatic Annotation Server (50), the metabolic potentials of Sulfobacillus strains were reconstructed and compared with each other to investigate shared metabolic and species-and/or strain-specific pathways (Table S3).…”

“…or certain members of the heterotrophic Thermoplasmatales, members of the genus Sulfobacillus are metal-tolerant, mildly thermophilic, or thermotolerant acidophiles that promote sulfide mineral dissolution and ubiquitously occur in various acidic habitats (30,31), such as acid mine drainage (32), acid thermal springs (33), hydrothermal vents (34), and industrial bioleaching operations (35). In the past several decades, a number of papers have discussed issues related to key metabolic features within several isolated Sulfobacillus species, namely, S. thermosulfidooxidans (36), S. acidophilus (33), S. thermotolerans (37), S. sibiricus (38), and S. benefaciens (39). As such, the Sulfobacillus genus represents an intriguing consortium of microbes with disparate ecological distribution and physiological preferences.…”

Two Large, Related, Cryptic Plasmids from Geographically Distinct Isolates of Sulfobacillus thermotolerans

“…1; also, see Tables S1 and S2 in the supplemental material). The overall GC content of pL15 and pY0017 calculated from the nucleotide (nt) sequence is 57.5 and 58.2 mol%, respectively, which is considerably higher than the 48.2 Ϯ 0.5 mol% GC for the S. thermotolerans type strain DSM17362 (4). Overall the two plasmids have 63.5% sequence identity, with certain regions showing identity as high as 92% (Fig.…”

“…Bacteria of the Gram-positive genus Sulfobacillus are typically endospore-forming, moderately thermophilic (40 to 60°C), acidophilic, and iron and sulfur oxidizing (4,16,30). Members of the genus Sulfobacillus form an important part of the microbial consortia responsible for the biooxidation of sulfide ores in the biomining industry (13,33,37).…”

“…Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans (16) appears to be the most active in oxidation of iron and mineral sulfides and is commonly isolated from biomining operations, while S. benefaciens (19) has been less frequently isolated from similar processes. The species more commonly isolated from natural environments include Sulfobacillus acidophilus (30), Sulfobacillus sibiricus (26), and Sulfobacillus thermotolerans (4).…”