Alkalilimnicola ehrlichii sp. nov., a novel, arsenite-oxidizing haloalkaliphilic gammaproteobacterium capable of chemoautotrophic or heterotrophic growth with nitrate or oxygen as the electron acceptor

A facultative chemoautotrophic bacterium, strain MLHE-1T, was isolated from Mono Lake, an alkaline hypersaline soda lake in California, USA. Cells of strain MLHE-1T were Gram-negative, short motile rods that grew with inorganic electron donors (arsenite, hydrogen, sulfide or thiosulfate) coupled with the reduction of nitrate to nitrite. No aerobic growth was attained with arsenite or sulfide, but hydrogen sustained both aerobic and anaerobic growth. No growth occurred when nitrite or nitrous oxide was substituted for nitrate. Heterotrophic growth was observed under aerobic and anaerobic (nitrate) conditions. Cells of strain MLHE-1T could oxidize but not grow on CO, while CH4 neither supported growth nor was it oxidized. When grown [...]