9% and a HSP coverage of 73.0%. The most frequently occurring keywords within the labels of environmental samples which yielded hits were ‘microbi’ (5.0%), ‘spring’ (2.9%), ‘sediment’ (2.4%), ‘soil’ (2.3%) and ‘industri’ (2.2%) (206 hits in total). Environmental useful handbook samples which yielded hits of a higher score than the highest scoring species were not found. The 16S rRNA based tree in Figure 1 shows the phylogenetic neighborhood of H. maritima. The sequence of the two identical 16S rRNA genes differs by one nucleotide from the previously published 16S rRNA sequence (“type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”Y18292″,”term_id”:”5701844″,”term_text”:”Y18292″Y18292). Figure 1 Phylogenetic tree highlighting the position of H. maritima relative to the other type strains within the family Desulfurellaceae.

The tree was inferred from 1,526 aligned characters [5,6] of the 16S rRNA gene sequence under the maximum likelihood criterion … The cells of H. maritima are short rods ranging from 1-3 x 0.4�C0.8 ��m (Figure 2 and Table 1) that occur singly or in pairs [1]. H. maritima is motile by one polar flagellum [1] (not visible in Figure 2). Colonies are whitish-gray with diameters up to 0.5 mm [1]. H. maritima cultures require 2.5-3% NaCl and 0.02% (w/v) yeast extract for growth [1]. The temperature range for growth is between 40��C and 65��C, with an optimum at 52�C54��C [1]. Growth was observed over a pH range of 5.7 to 6.5 with an optimum around 6.0 [1]. Figure 2 Scanning electron micrograph of H. maritima MH2T Table 1 Classification and general features of H.

maritima MH2T according to the MIGS recommendations [10]. All H. maritima strains can grow on molecular hydrogen, acetate, and saturated fatty acids and require elemental sulfur as the only known electron acceptor [1]. Strain MH3, isolated from Matupi Harbor, was the only H. maritima strain growing on ethanol in the presence of elemental sulfur [1]. Fumarate supported only weak growth for all three known strains [1], whereas formate, propionate, butyrate, pyruvate, lactate, succinate, glucose, starch, peptone, methanol did not support growth [1]. CO2 and H2S were the only detected end products [1]. Chemotaxonomy No chemotaxonomical data were reported in the initial description of the organism [1] nor elsewhere, subsequently.

Genome sequencing and annotation Genome project history This organism was selected for sequencing on the basis of its phylogenetic position [19], and is part of the Genomic Batimastat Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project [20]. The genome project is deposited in the Genomes On Line Database [9] and the complete genome sequence is deposited in GenBank. Sequencing, finishing and annotation were performed by the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI). A summary of the project information is shown in Table 2.