Abstract
Multicellular gliding filaments were observed among high numbers of other bacteria on the bottom of anaerobic marine enrichment culture flasks with sulfate and acetate or benzoate as substrates. An electronmicroscopical grid fixed in a glass tube was used as a sieve to wash the filaments free from the bulk of smaller bacteria with sterile sulfide-reduced medium. Subsequent dilution series in anaerobic soft agar tubes yielded a pure culture of a 3 μm wide filamentous bacterium, strain 5ac10, that grew by dissimilatory sulfate reduction with acetate as electron donor. A gliding sulfate-reducing bacterium of 6–8 μm diameter was enriched with benzoate; a pure culture, strain 4be13, was isolated by repeated transfer of single filaments through small portions of anoxic liquid medium. The description of these isolates as two new species of the new genus Desulfonema follows in a separate paper. Gliding filamentous bacteria similar to strain 5ac10 were also obtained in anaerobic freshwater raw cultures with added calcium sulfate and cellulose; all attempts failed to grow these bacteria in synthetic media.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen MM (1973) Methods for Cyanophyceae. In: Stein JR (ed) Handbook of phycological methods. Culture methods and growth measurements. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 127–138
Bowyer JW, Skerman VBD (1968) Production of axenic cultures of soilborne and endophytic blue-green algae. J Gen Microbiol 54:299–306
Burton SD, Lee JD (1978) Improved enrichment and isolation procedures for obtaining pure cultures of Beggiatoa. Appl Environ Microbiol 35:614–617
Carmichael WW, Gorham PR (1974) An improved method for obtaining axenic clones of planktonic blue-green algae. J Phycol 10:238–240
Castenholz RW (1981) Isolation and cultivation of thermophilic cyanobacteria. In: Starr MP, Stolp H, Trüper HG, Balows A, Schlegel HG (eds) The prokaryotes, vol I. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 236–246
Heaney SI, Jaworski GHM (1977) A simple separation technique for purifying micro-algae. Brit Phycol J 12:171–174
Meffert M-E, Chang T-P (1978) The isolation of planktonic blue green algae (Oscillatoria-species). Arch Hydrobiol 82:231–239
Rippka R, Waterbury JB, Stanier RY (1981) Isolation and purification of cyanobacteria: some general principles. In: Starr MP, Stolp H, Trüper HG, Balows A, Schlegel HG (eds) The prokaryotes, vol I. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 212–220
Strohl WR, Larkin JM (1978) Enumeration, isolation, and characterization of Beggiatoa from freshwater sediments. Appl Environ Microbiol 36:755–770
Walsby AE (1981) Cyanobacteria: planktonic gas-vacuolate forms. In: Starr MP, Stolp H, Trüper HG, Balows A, Schlegel HG (eds) The prokaryotes, vol I. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 224–235
Widdel F, Pfennig N (1981) Studies on dissimilatory sulfate-reducing bacteria that decompose fatty acids. I. Isolation of new sulfate-reducing bacteria enriched with acetate from saline environments. Descritpion of Desulfobacter postgatei gen. nov., sp. nov. Arch Microbiol 129:395–400
Widdel F, Kohring G-W, Mayer F (1983) Studies on dissimilatory sulfate-reducing bacteria that decompose fatty acids. III. Characterization of the filamentous gliding Desulfonema limicola gen. nov. sp. nov., and Desulfonema magnum sp. nov. Arch Microbiol 134:286–294
Wiessner W (1981) The family Beggiatoaceae. In: Starr MP, Stolp H, Trüper HG, Balows A, Schlegel HG (eds) The prokaryotes, vol I. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 380–389
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Widdel, F. Methods for enrichment and pure culture isolation of filamentous gliding sulfate-reducing bacteria. Arch. Microbiol. 134, 282–285 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00407803
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00407803