Characterization of a Novel Thermophilic Aneruinibacillus

Bacterial samples, harvested from soils close to exhaust vents from a subsurface mine fire under Centralia, Pennsylvania, were isolated. The surface vents resulted from a 1962 exposed coal seam fire, which is presently consuming the remnants of abandoned tunnels and underground coal reservoirs. The resulting gases, at temperatures over 350 oC, vent through surface fissures yielding gases rich in elemental and salts of sulfur, nitrogen, and iron. Soil samples were collected near vents with temperatures ranging from 55 to 65 oC. A white, gram-negative filamentous mildly thermophilic heterotrophic bacterium grew well in R2A media at 50 oC. This sample was identified by 16S rDNA and was found to be of the Aneruinibacillus genus. Phylogenetic testing is being performed to find any closely related species. The relatives will be compared to this novel species for physiological and metabolic characterization. A tentatively proposed name for this discovered species is Aneurinibacillus centralius.