A SALT-REQUIRING SULFATE-REDUCING BACTERIUM ISOLATED FROM ANTARCTICA

Abstract

Determinative studies were carried out on an obligatory anaerobic, sulfate- reducing bacterium (strain No. 61) isolated from a pond water in Skarvs Nes district in the East Antarctica. This sulfate-reducing bacterium was nonsporulating, sigmoid or straight rods with a single polar flagellum, gram negative, and possessed cytochrome c₃ and desulfoviridin, characteristic of the genus Desulfovibrio. It could grow with lactate, malate, pyruvate, or choline when sulfate was present in the culture medium and had a stable sodium chloride requirement. These observations dinicated that strain No. 61 closely resembled Desulfovibrio desulfuricans var. aestuarii.