PHYLOGENY AND PHOTOSYNTHETIC FEATURES OF THIOBACILLUS-ACIDOPHILUS ANDRELATED ACIDOPHILIC BACTERIA - ITS TRANSFER TO THE GENUS ACIDIPHILIUMAS ACIDIPHILIUM-ACIDOPHILUM COMB. NOV
A. Hiraishi et al., PHYLOGENY AND PHOTOSYNTHETIC FEATURES OF THIOBACILLUS-ACIDOPHILUS ANDRELATED ACIDOPHILIC BACTERIA - ITS TRANSFER TO THE GENUS ACIDIPHILIUMAS ACIDIPHILIUM-ACIDOPHILUM COMB. NOV, International journal of systematic bacteriology, 48, 1998, pp. 1389-1398
Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rDNA sequences and genomic DNA-DNA
relatedness showed that the sulphur-oxidizing facultative chemolithotr
oph Thiobacillus acidophilus was closely related to members of the gen
us Acidiphilium, which is a group of strictly aerobic, heterotrophic a
cidophiles now categorized into aerobic photosynthetic bacteria. Lipop
hilic pigment analyses revealed that zinc-chelated bacteriochlorophyll
a and carotenoids occurred in appreciable amounts in T. acidophilus a
nd all established species of the genus Acidiphilium, PCR experiments
showed that T. acidophilus as well as Acidiphilium species contained p
uf genes, encoding the photosynthetic reaction centre proteins and the
core light-harvesting complex of the purple bacteria. There were high
similarities between T, acidophilus and Acidiphilium species in the p
rimary structure of their reaction centre proteins deduced from the nu
cleotide sequence data, The phylogenetic tree of the reaction centre p
roteins was in agreement with the 16S rDNA sequence-based phylogenetic
tree in the relationship between T. acidophilus and Acidiphilium spec
ies and between the Acidiphilium cluster and other purple photosynthet
ic bacteria, Based on these results, together with previous phylogenet
ic and phenotypic information, it is proposed to reclassify T, acidoph
ilus (Guay and Silver) Harrison 1983 as Acidiphilium acidophilum comb,
nov. The type strain is ATCC 27807(T) (= DSM 700(T)).