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Elemental sulfur (S(0) ) is deposited each summer onto surface ice at Borup Fiord pass on Ellesmere Island, Canada, when high concentrations of aqueous H(2) S are discharged from a supraglacial spring system. 16S rRNA gene clone libraries generated from sulfur deposits were dominated by β-Proteobacteria, particularly Ralstonia sp. Sulfur-cycling micro-organisms such as Thiomicrospira sp., and ε-Proteobacteria such as Sulfuricurvales and Sulfurovumales spp. were also abundant. Concurrent cultivation experiments isolated psychrophilic, sulfide-oxidizing consortia, which produce S(0) in opposing gradients of Na(2) S and oxygen. 16S rRNA gene analyses of sulfur precipitated in gradient tubes show stable sulfur-biomineralizing consortia dominated by Marinobacter sp. in association with Shewanella, Loktanella, Rubrobacter, Flavobacterium, and Sphingomonas spp. Organisms closely related to cultivars appear in environmental 16S rRNA clone libraries; none currently known to oxidize sulfide. Once consortia were simplified to Marinobacter and Flavobacteria spp. through dilution-to-extinction and agar removal, sulfur biomineralization continued. Shewanella, Loktanella, Sphingomonas, and Devosia spp. were also isolated on heterotrophic media, but none produced S(0) alone when reintroduced to Na(2) S gradient tubes. Tubes inoculated with a Marinobacter and Shewanella spp. co-culture did show sulfur biomineralization, suggesting that Marinobacter may be the key sulfide oxidizer in laboratory experiments. Light, florescence and scanning electron microscopy of mineral aggregates produced in Marinobacter experiments revealed abundant cells, with filaments and sheaths variably mineralized with extracellular submicron sulfur grains; similar biomineralization was not observed in abiotic controls. Detailed characterization of mineral products associated with low temperature microbial sulfur-cycling may provide biosignatures relevant to future exploration of Europa and Mars., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

The perennial springs at Gypsum Hill (GH) and Colour Peak (CP), situated at nearly 80 degrees N on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian high Arctic, are one of the few known examples of cold springs in thick permafrost on Earth. The springs emanate from deep saline aquifers and discharge cold anoxic brines rich in both sulfide and sulfate. Grey-coloured microbial streamers form during the winter months in snow-covered regions of the GH spring run-off channels (-1.3 degrees C to 6.9 degrees C, approximately 7.5% NaCl, 0-20 p.p.m. dissolved sulfide, 1 p.p.m. dissolved oxygen) but disappear during the Arctic summer. Culture- and molecular-based analyses of the 16S rRNA gene (FISH, DGGE and clone libraries) indicated that the streamers were uniquely dominated by chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing Thiomicrospira species. The streamers oxidized both sulfide and thiosulfate and fixed CO(2) under in situ conditions and a Thiomicrospira strain isolated from the streamers also actively oxidized sulfide and thiosulfate and fixed CO(2) under cold, saline conditions. Overall, the snow-covered spring channels appear to represent a unique polar saline microhabitat that protects and allows Thiomicrospira streamers to form and flourish via chemolithoautrophic, phototrophic-independent metabolism in a high Arctic winter environment characterized by air temperatures commonly below -40 degrees C and with an annual average air temperature of -15 degrees C. These results broaden our knowledge of the physical and chemical boundaries that define life on Earth and have astrobiological implications for the possibility of life existing under similar Martian conditions.

Two psychrophilic, chemolithoautotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were isolated from marine Arctic sediments sampled off the coast of Svalbard with thiosulfate as the electron donor and CO(2) as carbon source. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences suggested that the novel strains, designated SVAL-D(T) and SVAL-E(T), represent members of the genus Thiomicrospira. Further genotypic (DNA-DNA relatedness, DNA G+C content) and phenotypic characterization revealed that the strains represent members of two novel species. Both organisms are obligately autotrophic and strictly aerobic. Nitrate was not used as an electron acceptor. Chemolithoautotrophic growth was observed with thiosulfate, tetrathionate and sulfur. The temperature limits for growth of both strains were between -2 degrees C and 20.8 degrees C, with optima of 11.5-13.2 degrees C (SVAL-E(T)) and 14.6-15.4 degrees C (SVAL-D(T)), which is about 13-15 degrees C lower than the optima of all other recognized Thiomicrospira species. The maximum growth rate on thiosulfate at 14 degrees C was 0.14 h(-1) for strain SVAL-E(T) and 0.2 h(-1) for strain SVAL-D(T). Major fatty acids of SVAL-D(T) are C(16 : 1), C(18 : 0) and C(16 : 0), and those of SVAL-E(T) are C(16 : 1), C(18 : 1), C(16 : 0) and C(14 : 1). Cells of SVAL-D(T) and SVAL-E(T) are rods, like those of their closest relatives. To our knowledge the novel strains are the first psychrophilic, chemolithoautotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria so far described. The names Thiomicrospira arctica sp. nov. and Thiomicrospira psychrophila sp. nov. are proposed for SVAL-E(T) (=ATCC 700955(T)=DSM 13458(T)) and SVAL-D(T) (=ATCC 700954(T)=DSM 13453(T)), respectively.