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Abstract

In environments with temperatures above 60 degrees C, thermophilic prokaryotes are the only metabolically active life-forms. By using the (SO42-)-S-35 tracer technique, we studied the activity of sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) in hot sediment from a hydrothermal vent site in the northern part of freshwater Lake Tanganyika (East Africa). Incubation of slurry samples at 8 to 90 degrees C demonstrated meso- and thermophilic sulfate reduction with optimum temperatures of 34 to 45 degrees C and 56 to 65 degrees C, respectively, and with an upper temperature limit of 80 degrees C. Sulfate reduction was stimulated at all temperatures by the addition of short-chain fatty acids and benzoate or complex substrates (yeast extract and peptone). A time course experiment showed that linear thermophilic sulfate consumption occurred after a lag phase (12 h) and indicated the presence of a large population of SRM in the hydrothermal sediment. Thermophilic sulfate reduction had a pH optimum of about 7 and was completely inhibited at pH 8.8 to 9.2. SRM could be enriched from hydrothermal chimney and sediment samples at 60 and 75 degrees C. In lactate-grown enrichments, sulfide production occurred at up to 70 and 75 degrees C, with optima at 63 and 71 degrees C, respectively. Several sporulating thermophilic enrichments were morphologically similar to Desulfotomaculum spp. Dissimilatory sulfate reduction in the studied hydrothermal area of Lake Tanganyika apparently has an upper temperature limit of 80 degrees C.