A new strictly anaerobic bacterium, strain DYL19T, was enriched and isolated with phosphite as the sole electron donor and CO2 as a single carbon source and electron acceptor from anaerobic sewage sludge sampled at a sewage treatment plant in Constance, Germany. It is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, slightly curved, rod-shaped bacterium which oxidizes phosphite to phosphate while reducing CO2 to biomass and small amounts of acetate. Optimal growth is observed at 30 °C, pH 7.2, with a doubling time of 3 days. Beyond phosphite, no further inorganic or organic electron donor can be used, and no other electron acceptor than CO2 is reduced. Sulphate inhibits growth with phosphite and CO2. The G+C content is 45.95 mol%, and dimethylmenaquinone-7 is the only quinone detectable in the cells. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and other chemotaxonomic properties, strain DYL19T is described as the type strain of a new genus and species, Phosphitispora fastidiosa gen. nov., sp. nov.
Keywords: Phosphitispora fastidiosa gen. nov., sp. nov; phosphite oxidation; sporulation.