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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.02622-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Diversity, Activity and Abundance of Sulfate Reducing Bacteria in Saline and Hypersaline Soda Lakes

Environmental Biotechnology, Dept. of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, NL-2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands, Winogradsky Institute for Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, Dept. of Microbiology, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: g.muijzer{at}tudelft.nl.

	Abstract

Soda lakes are naturally occurring highly alkaline and saline environments. Although the sulfur cycle is one of the most active element cycles in these lakes, little is known about the sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). In this study we investigated the diversity, activity, and abundance of SRB in sediment samples and enrichment cultures from a range of (hyper)saline soda lakes of the Kulunda Steppe in south-east Siberia (Russia). For this purpose a polyphasic approach was used, including denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of dsr gene fragments, sulfate reduction rate (SRR) measurements, serial dilutions, and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Comparative sequence analysis revealed the presence of several novel clusters of SRB, mostly affiliated to the Desulfovibrionales and Desulfobacteraceae. We detected sulfate reducers and observed substantial sulfate reducing rates (between 12 and 423 µmol/dm³ d^-1) for most lakes, even at a salinity of 475 g/L. Enrichments were obtained at salt saturating conditions (4M Na⁺), using H₂ or volatile fatty acids (VFA) as electron donors and an extremely halophilic SRB, strain ASO3-1, was isolated. Furthermore, a high dsr gene copy number of 10 ⁸ cells per ml was detected in a hypersaline lake by qPCR. Our results indicate the presence of diverse and active SRB communities in these extreme ecosystems.

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