Abstract
The genus Propionigenium consists so far of one single species that comprises four strains of physiologically and morphologically similar isolates from various origins (Schink and Pfennig, 1982). This genus was created to house strictly anaerobic bacteria that are able to grow by decarboxylation of succinate to propionate. Enrichment cultures, which were set up originally to enrich for syntrophic succinate degraders from marine and freshwater sediments, developed unexpectedly fast growth of small, coccoid bacteria that did not depend on cooperation with hydrogen-scavenging partners and formed propionate as the sole fermentation product. Pure cultures could only be obtained with enrichment cultures from marine sources; the freshwater enrichments grew much slower, and pure cultures were finally isolated when the sodium chloride concentration of the medium was enhanced to 100–150 mM. This finding gave the first hint on a sodium dependence of this new type of energy conservation.
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Schink, B. (1992). The Genus Propionigenium . In: Balows, A., Trüper, H.G., Dworkin, M., Harder, W., Schleifer, KH. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2191-1_57
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2191-1_57
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