New Microbes Found at Land, Sea and in Air
Posted on September 6, 2022 by Microbiology Society
Each month, the Microbiology Society publishes the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, which details newly discovered species of bacteria, fungi and protists. Here are some of the new species that have been discovered and the places they've been found.
In this edition of New to Science we begin our journey where we often find ourselves in the search for novel microbes: down in the depths of the ocean. In the Mariana Trench a novel bacterial genus and species of the family Flavobacteriaceae, Abyssalbus ytuae, has been isolated from the sediment at a depth of 4,448m. Moving to slightly warmer waters, a further two novel bacteria genera, Parvicella tangerina and Lysobacter luteus, were isolated from a seawater-processing wastewater treatment plant on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain. Parvicella tangerine was so-named due to the tangerine-coloured colony. Interestingly, the environment they were isolated from is extremely rare, with the plant utilising seawater to process intermediate products from amoxicillin (a type of antibiotic) synthesis.
Maintaining the colourful marine theme, we move eastwards to Turkey where an unfortunate rainbow trout provides us with our next microbe. The novel species, Shewanella oncorhynchi, of genus Shewanella, is a Gram-negative, primarily aquatic bacterium which joins several Shewanella species with emerging clinical importance as opportunistic pathogens in fish and humans. This unlucky fish was displaying symptoms of lens atrophy, inappetence, visual impairment and growth retardation. Another bacterium that may be able to impact the growth of other organisms is the newly isolated species Leucobacter chinensis, which was isolated from soil in a field that had undergone seven years of continuous maize cropping in China. This novel species was found to have plant growth-promoting properties, as it could produce indole-3-acetic acid and siderophore, and tested positive for nitrogen fixation.
Moving away from bacteria, a novel yeast species Moniliella aeria was isolated from the air of a Chinese Wuliangye baijiu-making workshop. Baiju is a spirit produced by fermenting grains with a daqu starter, which is prepared in an open environment. The starter allows for enrichment of some airborne microbes that settle on it, which are considered to play a significant role in the quality of baiju.
Further yeast species have been isolated from several locations, including from the soil and fruiting body of a mushroom in Taiwan and from traditional Thai fermented foods. Two novel yeast species from the genus, Keratinophyton, have also been isolated from soil samples in the Guizhou Province and Sichuan Province, China.
