2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Phylo-geographic study on highly novel slow-growing microorganisms

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23570117
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Biodiversity/Systematics
Research Institution	Hiroshima University
Principal Investigator	NAGANUMA Takeshi 広島大学, 生物圏科学研究科, 准教授 (70263738)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	分類群 / 微生物 / ゆっくり増える菌 / 生物地理 / チュニジア / サハラ砂漠
Research Abstract	A slow-growing aerobic bacterium, named Shr3, was isolated from an arid area in Tunisia, and was only distantly related to all other known organisms at <82% similarity of 16S rRNA gene sequences. Along with other genetic, biochemical and physiological properties, the isolate Shr3 was shown to be a highly novel new species, representing a new Class within the Phylum Proteobacteria. This taxonomic proposal has been subject to expert reviews. A copy (sub-culture) of the Shr3 strain has been deposited at National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria (NCIMB), UK. In addition to Shr3, two more isolates were also characterized to propose new taxa, i.e., species, genera, families, orders, or higher.