An anaerobic, nitrate-reducing, sulfur- and thiosulfate-oxidizing bacterium, designated strain 1812ET, was isolated from the vent polychaete Riftia pachyptila, which was collected from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent on the East Pacific Rise. Cells were Gram-stain-negative rods, measuring approximately 1.05±0.11 µm by 0.40±0.05 µm. Strain 1812ET grew at 25 - -45 °C (optimum 35 °C), with 1.5-4.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3.0 %) and at pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum pH 6.0). The generation time under optimal conditions was 3 h. Strain 1812ET was an anaerobic chemolithotroph that grew with either sulfur or thiosulfate as the energy source and carbon dioxide as the sole carbon source. Nitrate was used as a sole terminal electron acceptor. The predominant fatty acids were C16 : 1ω7c, C18 : 1ω7c and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone MK-6 and the G+C content of the genomic DNA was 47.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene of strain 1812ET showed that the isolate belonged to the Epsilonproteobacteria, and its closest relatives were Sulfurovum lithotrophicum 42BKTT and Sulfurovum aggregans Monchim 33T (98.3 and 95.7 % sequence similarity, respectively). DNA-DNA relatedness between strain 1812ET and the type strain of S. lithotrophicum was 29.7 %, demonstrating that the two strains are not members of the same species. Based on the phylogenetic, molecular, chemotaxonomic and physiological evidence, strain 1812ET represents a novel species within the genus Sulfurovum, for which the name Sulfurovum riftiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 1812ET (=DSM 101780T=JCM 30810T).
Keywords: East Pacific Rise; Sulfurovum; Epsilonproteobacteria; deep-sea hydrothermal vents; nitrate reduction; sulfur oxidation.