Diversity and community analysis of ammonia oxidizing bacteria in a streambed surrounding an artificial dam.

The degree to which small natural dams affect the native bacterial nitrogen cycling community was explored by molecular methods. The identities and relative abundances of ammonia oxidizing bacteria in the sediment surrounding an artificial dam both at the surface and in the hyporheic zone were characterized. Analyses were performed using tRFLP of the conserved amoA gene using a semi-nested degenerate PCR approach.

Methylocystis hirsuta sp. nov., a novel methanotroph isolated from a groundwater aquifer.

Strain CSC1(T), a Gram-negative, aerobic, methane-oxidizing bacterium, was isolated from an uncontaminated aquifer nearly 20 years ago. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, this strain was identified as a member of the Alphaproteobacteria, most closely related to an uncultured member of the Methylocystaceae as well as two cultured organisms, Methylocystis sp. L32 and Methylocystis sp.