Syntrophic Interaction between an Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Bacterium and a Tetrathionate-reducing Bacterium in Anaerobic Benzoate Degradation

Abstract

The present study exami­ned bacteria that anaerobically degrade the aromatic compound, benzoate, and obtained enrichment cultures from marine sediments under illumination. The enrichment culture contained anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria and non-photosynthetic bacteria. The photosynthetic strain PS1, a purple sulfur bacterium in the genus Marichromatium, was unable to utilize benzoate; however, when combined with the non-photosynthetic bacterial isolate, Marinobacterium sp. strain BA1, the co-culture grew anaerobically on benzoate in the presence of thiosulfate or tetrathionate. Based on the metabolic profiles of the co-culture and axenic cultures, the following syntrophic interactions were proposed. Strain PS1 oxidizes thiosulfate as the electron source for photosynthesis to produce tetrathionate and relies on carbon dioxide produced through benzoate degradation by strain BA1. Strain BA1 oxidizes benzoate and reduces tetrathionate to provide thiosulfate to strain PS1 for photosynthetic carbon fixation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report anaerobic benzoate degradation in a photosynthetic co-culture through the syntrophic exchange of sulfur compounds.