Aerobic Endospore-Forming Bacteria from Geothermal Environments in Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica, and Candlemas Island
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International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (2000), 50, 1741–1753 Printed in Great Britain Aerobic endospore-forming bacteria from geothermal environments in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica, and Candlemas Island, South Sandwich archipelago, with the proposal of Bacillus fumarioli sp. nov. N. A. Logan,1 L. Lebbe,2 B. Hoste,2 J. Goris,2 G. Forsyth,1 M. Heyndrickx,2† B. L. Murray,1 N. Syme,1 D. D. Wynn-Williams3 and P. De Vos2 Author for correspondence: N. A. Logan. Tel: j44 141 331 3207. Fax: j44 141 331 3208. e-mail: n.a.logan!gcal.ac.uk 1 School of Biological and Aerobic endospore-forming bacteria were isolated from soils taken from active Biomedical Sciences, fumaroles on Mount Rittmann and Mount Melbourne in northern Victoria Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Land, Antarctica, and from active and inactive fumaroles on Candlemas Island, Road, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK South Sandwich archipelago. The Mt Rittmann and Mt Melbourne soils yielded 2 Vakgroep BFM WE10V, a dominant, moderately thermophilic and acidophilic, aerobic endospore- Laboratorium voor former growing at pH 55 and 50 SC, and further strains of the same organism Microbiologie, Universiteit were isolated from a cold, dead fumarole at Clinker Gulch, Candlemas Island. Gent, K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35, Amplified rDNA restriction analysis, SDS-PAGE and routine phenotypic tests B-9000 Gent, Belgium show that the Candlemas Island isolates are not distinguishable from the Mt 3 British Antarctic Survey, Rittmann strains, although the two sites are 5600 km apart, and 16S rDNA High Cross, Madingley sequence comparisons and DNA relatedness data support the proposal of a Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, new species, Bacillus fumarioli, the type strain of which is LMG 17489T. UK Keywords: Bacillus, Bacillus fumarioli, Antarctica, geothermal soils, thermoacidophile INTRODUCTION to be found in a number of circumpolar islands, including Deception Island, the South Sandwich Although Antarctica is largely an ice-bound continent Islands, Bouvetøya, Marion Island and l# les Kerguelen, that relies upon solar heating during the summer to and on continental Antarctica at Mount Erebus on support a sparse growth of terrestrial life, there exists Ross Island, Mount Melbourne and Mount Rittmann a small number of sites where volcanic activity warms in northern Victoria Land, and in Marie Byrd Land the soil and steam emissions from fumaroles condense (Fig. 1a). to maintain relatively steady water supplies. The unique selective pressures of such sites make the Mounts Erebus and Melbourne represent two of the organisms that live there of special biological interest four provinces of the McMurdo Volcanic Group, (Broady, 1993). The Cenozoic period has seen constant which is one of the most extensive alkali volcanic volcanic activity in Antarctica, and steaming ground is provinces in the world (Harrington, 1958). In 1988– 1989, the 4th Italian Antarctic Expedition discovered a new volcano, Mt Rittmann (Armienti & Tripodo, ................................................................................................................................................. 1991) (Fig. 1b), in the Melbourne Province, and in † Present address: Government Dairy Research Station, Brussels- 1990–1991 the 6th Italian Expedition found fumaroles esteenweg 370, B-9090 Melle, Belgium. in a minor calderic structure of Mt Rittmann (73m 28Z S, Abbreviations: ARDRA, amplified rDNA restriction analysis; FAME, fatty 165m 36Z E; Bonaccorso et al., 1991). This geothermal acid methyl ester. site, and others at the summits of Mt Melbourne and The EMBL accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of B. Mt Erebus, harbour unique vegetation communities fumarioli strain LMG 17489T is AJ250056. The accession numbers for the other 16S rRNA gene sequences are: LMG 17492, AJ250057; LMG 18409, which appear to have formed following colonization AJ250058; LMG 18418, AJ250059; LMG 18419, AJ250317; LMG 18435, by propagules from circumpolar continents (Linskens AJ250318; LMG 18437, AJ250319. et al., 1993). The geothermally heated biosystem at Mt 01407 # 2000 IUMS 1741 N. A. Logan and others ° (a) 0 Bouvetøya Marion Island CANDLEMAS ISLAND South Sandwich Islands Antarctic Circle 66° 40′ S Îles Kerguelen Heard Island Deception Island 90° W 90° E Marie Byrd Land MT MELBOURNE Ross Island MT RITTMAN 180° 1000 km (b) (c) 50 kmGlaciers 500 m Margin of ice cap Terra Nova Bay Clinker Gulch Ross Sea Italian Base 3 4 Kraken 2 Cove 5 6 1 MT MELBOURNE LUCIFER HILL Gorgon Pool Aviator Medusa Glacier Pool Tongue Mt Perseus ° ′ Coulman 57 05 S Mt Andromeda Island MT RITTMAN 165° E 26° 40′ W + 73° S ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Fig. 1. (a) Map of Antarctica and the subantarctic islands, with geothermal sites named, and the sites sampled indicated by names in capital letters; (b) map of northern Victoria Land showing the locations of Mt Melbourne and Mt Rittmann; (c) map of Candlemas Island, with sampling sites 1–6 indicated. 1742 International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 50 Bacillus fumarioli sp. nov. from Antarctica Rittmann has been described by Bargagli et al. (1996). depth within a fumarole) and two samples of moss-free soil It is a rough slope of gravelly sand which lies at an from the NW ridge of Mt Melbourne (soil temperatures 28n0 altitude of about 2600 m, and which has small fuma- and 36n7 mC) collected during the 1998–1999 austral summer roles whose internal temperatures (at 10 cm depth) were used fresh for isolations and counts of moderately range between 50 and 63 C; patches of moss grow on thermoacidophilic bacteria when examined at the Terra m Nova Bay base laboratory as soon as possible after col- the warm soil which has a relatively high moisture lection, and then stored frozen for transit to Glasgow. Soil content (by Antarctic standards) and a pH of around samples (temperatures ranging from k1n0 mCtoj16n5 mC) 5n4. were also collected from 25 non-geothermal sites within a Lucifer Hill on Candlemas Island (57m 05Z S, 26m 40Z W; 50 km radius of Mt Melbourne during the 1998–1999 season. Fig. 1c), in the South Sandwich Islands, reaches an Aerobic endospore-forming bacteria were sought in the 1995–1996 and 1996–1997 samples by adding 1 g quantities altitude of 232 m and also bears patches of moss of soil to 9 ml Trypticase Soy Broth (TSB; Oxoid) in around active fumaroles high on the hill, around duplicate at pH 5n5 and 7n0 for Mt Rittmann and Mt inactive fumaroles at Clinker Gulch, and on lava soils Melbourne samples, and at pH 4n5, 5n5 and 6n5 for Candle- at the base of the volcanic cone, with temperatures mas Island samples, and heat-treating one of each pair at ranging from 85 mC down to 0 mC. 80 mC for 10 min to kill vegetative cells. Spread plates inoculated with 0 1 ml soil suspension on Trypticase Soy n " Soil samples were collected from Mt Melbourne and Agar (Oxoid) at the appropriate pH and with 5 mg lV the Mt Rittmann geothermal site by British Antarctic MnSO% to enhance sporulation (TSA MnSO%) were incu- Survey (BAS) members of the international BIOTEX 1 bated at 15, 30, 50 and 65 mC for Mt Rittmann samples and expedition during the 1995–1996 austral summer, and at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 mC for Candlemas Island samples, from Lucifer Hill, Candlemas Island, by BAS per- and the suspensions remaining were incubated at the same sonnel during the 1996–1997 season, with a view to range of temperatures in waterbaths. The 1998–1999 samples investigating the aerobic endospore-forming bacterial from Mt Rittmann and Mt Melbourne and from 25 other floras of these sites. The present paper describes the sites were cultivated at 50 mC in a modification of the isolation and characterization of heterotrophic strains medium B described by Nicolaus et al. (1998), here called isolated from soils whose temperatures ranged from 0 Bacillus fumarioli broth (BFB), and plated on a solid medium to 60 C on Candlemas Island, and from fumarole soil called Bacillus fumarioli agar (BFA). BFB contained 4 g m yeast extract, 2 g (NH ) SO ,3gKHPO and 4 ml each % # "% # % at 50 mC from Mt Rittmann. A moderately thermo- of solutions A and B lV [A, 125 g (NH ) SO ,50g " " % # % philic and acidophilic, aerobic endospore-forming MgSO%;7H#OlV ;B,62n5 g CaCl#;2H#OlV ], adjusted to organism appeared to dominate the heterotrophic pH 5 5. BFA was prepared by adding 5 mg MnSO ;4H O n " % # population of the Mt Rittmann fumarole soil samples, and 18 g agar lV to BFB prior to autoclaving. TSB and BFB and was also found in soil taken from a cold, dead cultures which became turbid were subcultured by streaking fumarole at Clinker Gulch, Candlemas Island; further onto TSA MnSO% or BFA at the appropriate pH, and strains were isolated from soils of Mt Rittmann incubating at the appropriate temperature. Colonies ap- and Cryptogam Ridge, Mt Melbourne (74m 22Z S, pearing on spread plates and streak plates were screened for 164m 40Z E; Broady et al., 1987) during the 1998–1999 vegetative and sporangial morphologies by phase-contrast austral summer. We propose this organism as a new microscopy, and endospore-forming rods were streak puri- species with the name Bacillus fumarioli. fied and then transferred to slopes of the same medium for storage at 4 mC after incubation and