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Subfreezing Growth of the Sea Ice Bacterium “Psychromonas ingrahamii”

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Abstract

“Psychromonas ingrahamii,” named for John L. Ingraham, was isolated from sea ice from off Point Barrow, Alaska. This large rod-shaped bacterium belongs to the gamma-Proteobacteria. “P. ingrahamii” is a psychrophilic, heterotrophic bacterium that is gas vacuolate and nonmotile. “P. ingrahamii” is notable in that it grows at a temperature of −12°C with a generation time of 240 h. This is the lowest growth temperatures of any organism authenticated by a growth curve.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the University of Washington NSF IGERT (DGE-9870713) program in Astrobiology as well as the University of Washington NASA Space Grant program for partial support for this work. We thank Brian Hedlund for his help on the phylogenetic analysis, and we also appreciate his comments as well as those of Cheryl Jenkins and Jeremy Dodsworth on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology 357242, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

    J. Breezee, N. Cady & J. T. Staley

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  1. J. Breezee
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  2. N. Cady
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  3. J. T. Staley
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Correspondence to J. T. Staley.

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Breezee, J., Cady, N. & Staley, J. Subfreezing Growth of the Sea Ice Bacterium “Psychromonas ingrahamii” . Microb Ecol 47, 300–304 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-003-1040-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-003-1040-9

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