Physiological ecology of Clostridium glycolicum RD-1, an aerotolerant acetogen isolated from sea grass roots.

An anaerobic, H(2)-utilizing bacterium, strain RD-1, was isolated from the highest growth-positive dilution series of a root homogenate prepared from the sea grass Halodule wrightii. Cells of RD-1 were gram-positive, spore-forming, motile rods that were linked by connecting filaments. Acetate was produced in stoichiometries indicative of an acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) pathway-dependent metabolism when RD-1 utilized H(2)-CO(2), formate, lactate, or pyruvate. Growth on sugars or ethylene glycol yielded acetate and ethanol as end products. RD-1 grew at the expense of glucose in the presence of low initial concentrations (up to 6% [vol/vol]) of O(2) in the headspace of static, horizontally incubated culture tubes; the concentration of O(2) decreased during growth in such cultures. Peroxidase, NADH oxidase, and superoxide dismutase activities were detected in the cytoplasmic fraction of cells grown in the presence of O(2). In comparison to cultures incubated under strictly anoxic conditions, acetate production decreased, higher amounts of ethanol were produced, and lactate and H(2) became significant end products when RD-1 was grown on glucose in the presence of O(2). Similarly, when RD-1 was grown on fructose in the presence of elevated salt concentrations, lower amounts of acetate and higher amounts of ethanol and H(2) were produced. When the concentration of O(2) in the headspace exceeded 1% (vol/vol), supplemental H(2) was not utilized. The 16S rRNA gene of RD-1 had a 99.7% sequence similarity to that of Clostridium glycolicum DSM 1288(T), an organism characterized as a fermentative anaerobe. Comparative experiments with C. glycolicum DSM 1288(T) demonstrated that it had negligible H(2)- and formate-utilizing capacities. However, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase was detected in both RD-1 and C. glycolicum DSM 1288(T). A 91.4% DNA-DNA hybridization between the genomic DNA of RD-1 and that of C. glycolicum DSM 1288(T) confirmed that RD-1 was a strain of C. glycolicum. These results indicate that (i) RD-1 metabolizes certain substrates via the acetyl-CoA pathway, (ii) RD-1 can tolerate and consume limited amounts of O(2), (iii) oxic conditions favor the production of ethanol, lactate, and H(2) by RD-1, and (iv) the ability of RD-1 to cope with limited amounts of O(2) might contribute to its survival in a habitat subject to daily gradients of photosynthesis-derived O(2).