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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01743-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

(Per)chlorate reduction by the thermophilic bacterium, Moorella perchloratireducens sp. nov., isolated from an underground gas storage

Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Dreijenplein 10, 6703 HB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: fons.stams{at}wur.nl.

	Abstract

A thermophilic bacterium, strain An 10, was isolated from an underground gas storage with methanol as substrate and perchlorate as electron acceptor. Cells were Gram-positive straight rods, 0.4-0.6 µm in diameter and 2-8 µm in length, growing as single cells or in pairs. Spores were terminal with bulged sporangium. The temperature range for growth was 40-70°C, with an optimum at 55-60°C. The pH optimum was around 7. The salinity range for growth was between 0 and 40 g NaCl l^-1 with an optimum at 10 g l^-1. Strain An10 was able to grow on CO, methanol, pyruvate, glucose, fructose, cellobiose, mannose, xylose and pectin. The isolate was able to respire with (per)chlorate, nitrate, thiosulfate, neutralized Fe(III)-complexes, and anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS). The G+C content of the DNA was 57.6 mol%. On the basis of 16S rRNA analysis, strain An 10 was most closely related to Moorella thermoacetica and M. thermoautotrophica. The bacterium reduced perchlorate and chlorate completely to chloride. Key enzymes, perchlorate reductase and chlorite dismutase, were detected in cell-free extracts. Strain An10 is the first thermophilic and the first Gram-positive bacterium with the ability to use (per)chlorate as terminal electron acceptor.