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Selenomonas acidaminovorans sp. nov., a versatile thermophilic proton-reducing anaerobe able to grow by decarboxylation of succinate to propionate

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Abstract

A moderately thermophilic anaerobic bacterium (strain Su883), which decarboxylated succinate to propionate, was isolated from granular methanogenic sludge. The bacterium appeared to ferment a number of amino acids including glutamate, histidine, arginine, ornithine, citrulline, and threonine to propionate, acetate and hydrogen. Propionate was formed via the oxidative decarboxylation of α-ketoglutarate to succinyl-CoA. In addition, the strain degraded glucose, fructose, glycerol, pyruvate, serine, alanine, citrate and malate to acetate, carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and branched-chain amino acids to branched-chain fatty acids. With all single substrates solely hydrogen was formed as reduced fermentation product. Mixed cultures of strain Su883 and Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ΔH showed a more rapid conversion of substrates and with some substrates a shift from acetate to propionate formation.

Strain Su883 is a motile, gram-negative, non-sporeforming, slightly curved rod with a DNA base ratio of 56.5 mol% guanine-plus-cytosine. Selenomonas acidaminovorans Su883 is proposed as type strain for the new species within the genus Selenomonas.

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Author notes

  1. Cheng Guangsheng

    Present address: Institute of Microbiology, Academic Sinica, 100080, Beijing, P.R. China

  2. Frans P. Houwen

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P. O. Box 7025, S-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Wageningen Agricultural University, Hess. v. Suchtelenweg 4, 6703 CT, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Cheng Guangsheng, Caroline M. Plugge, Wim Roelofsen, Frans P. Houwen & Alfons J. M. Stams

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  1. Cheng Guangsheng
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  2. Caroline M. Plugge
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  5. Alfons J. M. Stams
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Guangsheng, C., Plugge, C.M., Roelofsen, W. et al. Selenomonas acidaminovorans sp. nov., a versatile thermophilic proton-reducing anaerobe able to grow by decarboxylation of succinate to propionate. Arch. Microbiol. 157, 169–175 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00245286

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