Chloroflexus aggregans DSM 9485

The phylum Chloroflexi is an early branching anoxygenic phototroph lineage within the Bacteria. Often grouped as the green non-sulfur bacterial (GNSB) branch of the 16S rRNA tree of life, this name is misleading, as not all members are green and some use sulfide. Its members are apparently metabolically diverse and widely distributed in nature. Although these organisms generally stain Gram-negative, a lipopolysaccharide-containing outer membrane is not present and the peptidoglycan is a variant that usually contains L-ornithine as the diamino acid. Most members of the Chloroflexi exhibit gliding motility. Members of the Family Chloroflexaceae are gliding filamentous, anoxygenic phototrophs. The "green" members of this family (Chloroflexus spp., Chloronema spp., Oscillochloris spp., and Chlorothrix spp.) synthesize bacteriochlorophylls a and c and use chlorosomes as their light harvesting antennae, while the "red" members of this family (Heliothrix and Roseiflexus spp.) only synthesize bacteriochlorophyll a and thus lack chlorosomes. The phylum Chloroflexi is heterogeneous with regard to metabolic properties, exhibiting two different pathways for carbon fixation (reductive pentose phosphate (Calvin cycle) and 3-hydroxy-propionate pathways), and their photosynthetic apparatus is a hybrid between that of green sulfur bacteria and purple bacteria.Chloroflexus aggregans MD-66, the type strain for this species, was originally isolated from Okukinu Meotobuchi hot spring in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan in 1995, where it grew as yellow streamers on a cyanobacterial mat. This hot spring contains 18 mM sodium chloride and 3 mM sodium bicarbonate as its major salts and trace amounts of sulfide. MD-66 grows anaerobically as a photoheterotroph and aerobically as a chemoheterotroph. The optimal growth temperature for C. aggregans is 55 degrees Celsius. It forms unbranched multicellular filaments of indefinite length, where the filaments are clearly septate. The cells have no flagella but are motile by gliding. Cultures grow by forming mat-like aggregates in liquid that have the appearance of green balls. Cell aggregates reform rapidly whenever a culture is shaken to produce a uniform suspension under growth conditions. Photosynthetic cultures are green to greenish brown. Bacteriochlorophylls a and c are present in phototrophically grown cells (under anaerobic conditions) and to a certain extent in chemotrophically grown cells under aerobic conditions. Chlorosomes are present, and the major quinone is menaquinone 10 (adapted from PubMed 7547286 and http://genome.jgi-psf.org/finished_microbes/chlgg/chlgg.home.html). (HAMAP: CHLAD)