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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2005, p. 1931-1940, Vol. 71, No. 4
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.4.1931-1940.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Diversity and Phylogenetic Affiliations of Morphologically Conspicuous Large Filamentous Bacteria Occurring in the Pelagic Zones of a Broad Spectrum of Freshwater Habitats

Michael Schauer* and Martin W. Hahn

Institute for Limnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Mondsee, Austria

Received 20 August 2004/ Accepted 25 October 2004

Filamentous bacteria with a conspicuous morphology were found in the majority of the bacterioplankton samples from a variety of freshwater habitats that were studied. These heterotrophic filaments typically account for <1 to 11% of the total number of bacteria. The biovolume of this morphotype can exceed 40% of the biovolume for all bacteria. Surprisingly, we found hardly any data on these morphologically conspicuous filaments in the literature. Mixed cultures containing these filamentous bacteria were established by cultivation and isolation experiments with samples from different freshwater lakes. Nearly full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained from several mixed cultures and environmental samples from habitats in Europe, Africa, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences showed that three groups form a single monophyletic cluster, the SOL cluster, in the family Saprospiraceae. We developed a set of six nested probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization. Of the six probes, one probe was specific for Haliscomenobacter hydrossis, three probes were specific for the three subclusters (each probe was specific for one subcluster), one probe was specific for the entire SOL cluster, and another probe targeted almost the entire Saprospiraceae family. Specific hybridization of environmental samples and enrichments showed that the members of the three subclusters exhibited the same filamentous morphology. So far, using the subcluster-specific probes, we have not been able to detect any bacteria with a differing morphology. We conclude that the SOL cluster bacteria are an integral part of bacterioplankton in many freshwater habitats. They potentially account for a large fraction of the total bacterial biomass but have been underrepresented in molecular diversity studies so far.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute for Limnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Mondseestrasse 9, 5310 Mondsee, Austria. Phone: 43 6232 3125 45. Fax: 43 6232 3578. E-mail: michael.schauer{at}oeaw.ac.at.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2005, p. 1931-1940, Vol. 71, No. 4
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.4.1931-1940.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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