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Abstract
A hydrocarbon-utilizing, obligately thermophilic bacterium was isolated from a littoral area of North Carolina, and it is herein described and named as a new species. The microorganism, designated strain PTA-1, is a gram-negative, non-sporeforming, nonmotile, pleomorphic rod that can utilize various long-chain n-alkanes, 1-alkenes, primary alcohols, or ketones as substrates for growth. It will not grow on nutrient broth or Trypticase soy broth. The organism is an obligate aerobe which grows most rapidly at 60 C with a generation time of 4.0 to 4.5 h at an optimum pH of 7.2 to 7.5 in minimal salts medium with 0.1% n-heptadecane as substrate. The temperature range for growth is 42 to 70 C. A deoxyribonucleic acid base composition of 68.8 mol% guanine plus cytosine for this organism was determined by thermal denaturation of isolated deoxyribonucleic acid. The cells contain a pink carotenoid pigment(s) that is most evident after growth at minimal temperatures with acetate as the substrate. It is proposed that this organism be placed in the genus Thermomicrobium as a new species, to which we give the name Thermomicrobium fosteri. The type strain of T. fosteri, PTA-1, has been deposited in the American Type Culture Collection under the number 29033.
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