Zixibacteria Explained

Zixibacteria is a bacterial phylum with candidate status, meaning it had no cultured representatives.^[1] It is a member of the FCB group^[2]

Zixibacteria was proposed as a bacterial phylum following the recovery of a genome from representative RBG-1. This genome was recovered using genome-resolved metagenomics from sediment samples of an aquifer adjacent to the Colorado River (CO, USA) and was suggestive of metabolically versatility, which is presumably requisite for life in a rapidly changing environment such as aquifer sediments

Since being proposed as a phylum in 2013, members of the Zixibacteria phylum have been detected in a variety of other environments (sometimes retroactively), including subsurface sediments (WA, USA),^[3] estuary water (NC, USA),^[4] moonmilk cave deposits (Comblain-au-Pont, Belgium),^[5] and deep subsurface fracture fluids from a gold mine (SD, USA)^[6]

Notes and References

1. Castelle. Cindy J.. Hug. Laura A.. Wrighton. Kelly C.. Thomas. Brian C.. Williams. Kenneth H.. Wu. Dongying. Tringe. Susannah G.. Singer. Steven W.. Eisen. Jonathan A.. Banfield. Jillian F.. 2013-08-27. Extraordinary phylogenetic diversity and metabolic versatility in aquifer sediment. Nature Communications. 4. 1. 2120. 10.1038/ncomms3120. 23979677. 3903129. 2013NatCo...4.2120C. 2041-1723.
2. Web site: Taxonomy - candidate division Zixibacteria. 25 May 2018. Uniprot Taxonomy Server. 17 May 2020.
3. Lin. Xueju. Kennedy. David. Fredrickson. Jim. Bjornstad. Bruce. Konopka. Allan. 2012. Vertical stratification of subsurface microbial community composition across geological formations at the Hanford Site. Environmental Microbiology. en. 14. 2. 414–425. 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02659.x. 22122741. 1462-2920.
4. Baker. Brett J.. Lazar. Cassandre Sara. Teske. Andreas P.. Dick. Gregory J.. 2015-04-13. Genomic resolution of linkages in carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling among widespread estuary sediment bacteria. Microbiome. 3. 1. 14. 10.1186/s40168-015-0077-6. 25922666. 4411801. 2049-2618 . free .
5. Maciejewska. Marta. Całusińska. Magdalena. Cornet. Luc. Adam. Delphine. Pessi. Igor S.. Malchair. Sandrine. Delfosse. Philippe. Baurain. Denis. Barton. Hazel A.. Carnol. Monique. Rigali. Sébastien. 2018-03-21. High-Throughput Sequencing Analysis of the Actinobacterial Spatial Diversity in Moonmilk Deposits. Antibiotics. 7. 2. 27. 10.3390/antibiotics7020027. 2079-6382. 6023079. 29561792. free.
6. Momper. Lily. Jungbluth. Sean P.. Lee. Michael D.. Amend. Jan P.. October 2017. Energy and carbon metabolisms in a deep terrestrial subsurface fluid microbial community. The ISME Journal. en. 11. 10. 2319–2333. 10.1038/ismej.2017.94. 28644444. 5607374. 1751-7370.