Open AccessNumerical taxonomic study of thermophilic Bacillus isolated from three geographically separated deep‐sea hydrothermal vents
Author(s) -
Marteinsson ViggóThór,
Birrien JeanLouis,
Jeanthon Christian,
Prieur Daniel
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
fems microbiology ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.377
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1574-6941
pISSN - 0168-6496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6941.1996.tb00122.x
Subject(s) - biology , hydrothermal vent , thermophile , ridge , structural basin , deep sea , mid atlantic ridge , paleontology , hydrothermal circulation , bacteria , fishery
A numerical taxonomic study has been carried out with 80 strains, newly isolated, from three geographically separated deep‐sea hydrothermal vents (Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, Guaymas Basin and Lau Basin) and eleven thermophilic reference strains representing 11 Bacillus species. The deep‐sea isolates were all halotolerant spore‐forming rods and grew aerobically above 65°C. Results from unweighted average linkage cluster analysis of a similarity matrix derived from the simple matching coefficient, showed formation of nine major phena, which were defined at the 83% similarity level or above. Seven phena were composed exclusively of strains isolated from the same site (4 from Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, 1 from Guaymas Basin and 2 from Lau Basin). The majority of the Lau Basin isolates clustered with 6 of the reference strains in one phenon, while isolates from Mid‐Atlantic Ridge and Guaymas Basin were found separated from this phenon at the 69% similarity level. The other reference strains showed less than 69% similarity with the deep‐sea isolates.