| The present study was conducted to determine the presence and physiology of mesophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, which constitute remote ecosystems, largely dependent on their own chemoautotrophic primary production. SRB were enriched and isolated from samples of hydrothermal water, invertebrates, chimneys, and sediment collected at deep-sea (1700 to 2600 m) hydrothermal vent sites in the Lau Basin, in the North Fiji Basin, and at 13 degrees N on the East Pacific Rise. From the hydrothermal fields in the Lau Basin and the North Fiji Basin, SRB were cultured at 30 degrees C from 19 out of 21 samples, including five samples of high-temperature hydrothermal water (> 100 degrees C). Acetate, benzoate, formate,... |
