Extremophilic iron-reducing bacteria: Their implications for possible life in extraterrestrial environments

Abstract

Iron reduction is believed to be an early form of respiration and iron-reducing bacteria might have evolved very early on Earth. To support this hypothesis, the authors began to search for both thermophilic and psychrophilic iron-reducing bacteria because iron-reducing capacity may be a widely distributed trait if ancestral microorganisms include extremophilic iron-reducing bacteria. To date, they have obtained thermophilic Fe(III)-reducing and magnetite-forming enrichment cultures from geologically and hydrologically isolated, millions of years-old deep terrestrial subsurface samples. Three dominant bacteria were identified based on 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences. Phylogenetical analysis indicated that these bacteria were closely related to Thermoanaerobacter ethanoliticus. Two pure thermophilic iron-reducing bacteria have been isolated and characterized from these enrichments, they also are able to degrade cellulose and xylan. Geological evidence indicated that these bacteria were separated from modern organisms for about 200 million years, and they are the oldest isolated bacteria available now. Evolutionary sequence analysis showed that the 16S rRNA genes evolved extremely slowly in these bacteria. In addition, the authors have obtained about 30 psychrophilic iron-reducing bacteria in samples from Siberia and Alaska permafrost soils, Pacific marine sediments and Hawaii deep sea water. These bacteria were also able to reduce other heavy metals. The isolation of both thermophilic and psychrophilic iron-reducing bacteria from surface and subsurface environments has significant implications for microbial evolution and for studying the origin of life in extraterrestrial environments.

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