Identification of thermoacidophilic bacteria and a new Alicyclobacillus genomic species isolated from acidic environments in Japan

Abstract

Sixty strains of thermoacidophilic bacteria have been isolated from soil and water samples obtained from various acidic environments in Japan. An initial comparative sequence analysis of the hypervariable regions of the 16S rDNA revealed that all strains could be assigned to the Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius- Alicyclobacillus genomic species 1 group, which could be further subdivided into three clusters (Clusters I-III). On the basis of phenotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic profiles, and phylogenetic data of six selected strains, five strains were identified as either A. acidocaldarius or Alicyclobacillus genomic species 1; however, one strain (MIH 332) could not be determined to belong to either of these species. 16S rDNA sequence homology values between strain MIH 332 and the reference strains of A. acidocaldarius (ATCC 27009(T)) and Alicyclobacillus genomic species 1 (DSM 11984) were 98.8% and 99.1%, respectively, which were higher than the corresponding similarity between the reference strains (98.4%). On the other hand, DNA-DNA hybridization levels between strain MIH 332 and the reference strains were 39% and 44%, respectively, which were lower than the value between the reference strains (59% or 65%). However, the phenotype of strain MIH 332 was also similar to those of the reference strains, and a typical phenotype could not be found for the strain, thus indicating that the strain may be a new genomic species of A. acidocaldarius, for which the name Alicyclobacillus genomic species 2 is tentatively proposed. The results of this study suggest that A. acidocaldarius and its related species are widely distributed in acidic environments in Japan, with slight regional variations in morphological and genotypic characteristics.

A new xylanase from thermoacidophilic Alicyclobacillus sp. A4 with broad-range pH activity and pH stability

“…Seventeen Alicyclobacillus spp. have been reported from various sources, such as garden soil, organic compost, orchard soil, fruit processing products, solfataric soil, acidic beverages, and heat-processed foods [34][35][36][37]. In this study, we isolated an Alicyclobacillus strain from the outflow of a hot spring in Yunnan, China.…”

A novel xylanase, XynA4-2, from thermoacidophilic Alicyclobacillus sp. A4 with potential applications in the brewing industry

“…Many Alicyclobacillus strains from various sources have been reported (Albuquerque et al 2000;Goto et al 2002;Groenewald et al 2009) since the genus was first established by Wisotzkey et al (1992). Several enzymes from Alicyclobacillus strains have been reported and had acidic or neutral pH optima (Eckert et al 2002;Eckert and Schneider 2003;Morana et al 2008;Bai et al 2010a, b, c).…”

Alicyclobacillus pomorum sp. nov., a novel thermo-acidophilic, endospore-forming bacterium that does not possess ω-alicyclic fatty acids, and emended description of the genus Alicyclobacillus

“…All Alicyclobacillus species form one phylogenetic cluster (exclusive of the species Sulfobacillus disulfidooxidans) based on 16S rDNA sequence analysis and possess v-alicyclic fatty acids (v-cyclohexane or v-cycloheptane fatty acids) as the major membrane lipid component. The Alicyclobacillus species have been isolated from natural sources such as hot springs and soil (Uchino & Doi, 1967;Darland & Brock, 1971;Hippchen et al, 1981;Deinhard et al, 1987a, b;Hiraishi et al, 1997;Nicolaus et al, 1998;Albuquerque et al, 2000;Goto et al, 2002b, Tsuruoka et al 2003, as well as secondary spoiled fruit-based beverages (Yamazaki et al, 1996;Goto et al, 2002a;Matsubara et al, 2002). During the course of a microbiological survey of various fruit juices, we isolated an unusual Alicyclobacillus-like organism from a spoiled mixed fruit juice.…”

“…rittmannii (Nicolaus et al, 1998). In addition, two genomic species, Alicyclobacillus genomic species 1 (Albuquerque et al, 2000) and Alicyclobacillus genomic species 2 (Goto et al, 2002b), have been reported as genomic species of A. acidocaldarius. All Alicyclobacillus species form one phylogenetic cluster (exclusive of the species Sulfobacillus disulfidooxidans) based on 16S rDNA sequence analysis and possess v-alicyclic fatty acids (v-cyclohexane or v-cycloheptane fatty acids) as the major membrane lipid component.…”