New to Science: Microbes from raw cow’s milk, corals and millipedes
Posted on January 16, 2017 by Anand Jagatia
Each month, the Microbiology Society publishes the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM), which details newly discovered species of bacteria, fungi and protists. Here are a few of the new species that have been discovered and the places they’ve been found.
Welcome to 2017! Here are some highlights from the latest issue of IJSEM, published last week.
Scientists from China have isolated a new species of actinomycete from a millipede. The bacterium, which they name Streptomyces kronopolitis, produces chemicals known as phoslactomycins, which could potentially be used as antifungal agents.
Researchers in Thailand have discovered a new microbe in the roots of the Jerusalem artichoke, a plant that produces edible tubers. The microbe, Pseudoxanthomonas helianthi,forms yellow circular colonies – fitting as its plant host is actually a sunflower.
Raw cow’s milk (milk that hasn’t been pasteurised) is full of bacteria, some of which can be pathogenic. Scientists from Germany investigating the microbiota in raw cow’s milk found several Corynebacterium species, including a novel one that they name Corynebacterium crudilactis.
Two new bacterial species have been found living in a fish pond this month. A group from Taiwan gave them both suitably fishy names: Piscinibacterium candidicorallinum and Sphingomonas piscinae. The same group also isolated the species Thalassotalea euphylliae on the beautiful torch coral, which has distinctive colourful tips on the end of its polyps.
Continuing the underwater theme, a group of Norwegian microbiologists have discovered a thermophilic bacterium on the wall of a hydrothermal vent, called Marinitoga arctica. And a pair of researchers from the United States have isolated the species Acidobacterium ailaauifrom a geothermally heated microbial mat in Hawaii.
The full papers describing these species are available to journal subscribers, but the abstracts are free to read. Articles can also purchased individually with the pay-per-view option.
