Koribacter versatilis

Organism: Bacteria, Acidobacteria, Acidobacteriales, Acideobateriaceae, Candidatus Koribacter^[1]

Koribacter versatilis is a member of the acidobacteria phylum which itself is a newly devised phylum of bacteria, and is only distantly related to other organisms in the domain bacteria. And its closest phylogenetic relative is candidatus solibacter usitatus, according to Michael Nerdahl. It contains 5,650,368 neucleotides, 4,777 proteins, 55 RNA genes, and has a circular chromosome according to information found from GenBank. And according to JGI, “The bacterium is a gram-negative, highly capsulated, aerobic heterotroph that grows with a range of sugars, sugar polymers, and some organic acids.”^[2]

It was first found in soil in a pasture from Australia in 2003, by a group of scientists led by S.J. Joseph.^[3] The bacterium, Koribacter, is a gram-negative, highly capsulated, aerobic heterotroph that grows with a range of sugars, sugar polymers, and some organic acids.^[4] And though Koribacter has a very slow growth rate, sometimes taking up to a week to have a visible colony, it makes up to 14% of soil bacteria communities. The amount of Koribacter in soil is so abundant because of the fact that iron is critical for it’s survival so with the large amount of iron in soil it can thrive there.^[5]

Koribacter plays a large role in regulating CO output on Earth. From previous studies about bacteria it has been found that CO-oxidizing bacteria remove 20% of the total CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. And because of that finding, “it is then plausible that acidobacteria, including Koribacter, name a quantitatively significant contribution to two major parts of the carbon cycle: degradation of complex polymers and CO oxidation”, according to Michael Nerdahl.^[6]

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