Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Establishment of Microbial Eukaryotic Enrichment Cultures from a Chemically Stratified Antarctic Lake and Assessment of Carbon Fixation Potential
Published on: April 20, 2012
Composition and activity of an autotrophic Fe(II)-oxidizing, nitrate-reducing enrichment culture
1Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Abstract:
16S rRNA gene libraries from the lithoautotrophic Fe(II)-oxidizing, nitrate-reducing enrichment culture described by Straub et al. (K. L. Straub, M. Benz, B. Schink, and F. Widdel, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:1458-1460, 1996) were dominated by a phylotype related (95% 16S rRNA gene homology) to the autotrophic Fe(II) oxidizer Sideroxydans lithotrophicus. The libraries also contained phylotypes related to known heterotrophic nitrate reducers Comamonas badia, Parvibaculum lavamentivorans, and Rhodanobacter thiooxidans. The three heterotrophs were isolated and found to be capable of only partial (12 to 24%) Fe(II) oxidation, suggesting that the Sideroxydans species has primary responsibility for Fe(II) oxidation in the enrichment culture.
Related Concept Videos
Microbial Nutrition
Microbes and Other Elemental Cycles
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs
Microbes and the Nitrogen Cycle
Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation
Redox Titration: Other Oxidizing and Reducing Agents

