New Species Publication

We are proud to announce a new paper coming out in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, “Geobacter daltonii sp. nov., an iron(III)- and uranium(VI)-reducing bacterium isolated from the shallow subsurface exposed to mixed heavy metal and hydrocarbon contamination,” by Om Prakash, Tom Gihring, Dava Dalton, Kuki Chin, Stefan Green, Denise Akob, Greg Wanger, and Joel Kostka. This paper describes a new species of Geobacter isolated from the contaminated subsurface of a nuclear legacy waste site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, managed by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.


Dr. Om Prakash, the lead author on this paper, cultivated a full 3 grams of G. daltonii to show that the genotype of the new strain is very different from its closest relative, G. uraniireducens (DNA-DNA hybridization value of 21 %). Here is Om with a giant flask of the uranium-breathing bug.

Sequencing proposal for JGI funded

We have just received news that our proposal to the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI), "Sequencing the genomes of six novel denitrifying bacterial isolates from the uranium and nitrate contaminated subsurface at the U.S. DOE Oak Ridge Integrated Field Research Center (OR-IFRC)," has been funded and sequencing will begin over the next 6 months.

Above: A picture of the wells at the FRC site where these denitrifying bacteria originated