TABLE 4.

Description of cultivated relatives nearest to selected Blood Falls clones and isolates obtained from concentrated subglacial outflow samples during December 1999 and December 2004^a

Putative ecological role	Blood Falls clone or isolate	Closest cultivated relative	% Similarity	% of library	Comments	Reference
Primary producer	C55	Thiomicrospira arctica	98.8	45.7	Chemoautotrophic sulfur oxidizer; psychrophilic arctic marine sediments	37
Sulfur and iron reducer	C24, C31	Geopsychrobacter electrodiphilus	98.0	11.1	Anaerobic, psychrotolerant, from marine sediments; chemoorganotroph using Fe(III), S°, Mn(IV), or AQDS as the electron acceptor	27
	C161	Desulfocapsa sulfoexigens	92.7	3.7	Anaerobic, psychrotolerant, from marine sediments; disproportionates elemental sulfur, sulfite, and thiosulfate using Fe(III) as a scavenging agent	21
Heterotroph	C65, C90, isolate BF05_4a	Marinobacter lipolyticus	96.1	3.7	Moderate halophile with lipolytic activity	46
	C154	Antarctic soil isolate	98.3	1.2	Protease-producing isolate	70
	C105	Psychroflexus tropicus	95.5	1.2	Hypersaline lake isolate	15
	Isolates BF05-1 and -2	Abyssal strain AII3 Cytophaga-Flavobacterium	95.1	NA	Thiosulfate-oxidizing strain isolated from marine sediments from a 4,500-m depth	64

^aAQDS, anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate; NA, not applicable.