A polyphasic study on the species diversity of the sediment microbiota of Lake Hévíz.

Lake Hévíz is the largest natural thermal lake of Europe, harboring special bacterial communities. The aim of the present study was to gain information about the distribution and species diversity of the sediment microbiota, with special focus on Actinobacteria, by using cultivation-based and -independent molecular methods. Samples from two depths were taken in two different locations in October 2007. 245 strains were isolated, grouped to 85 OTUs by ARDRA, and identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. Most of the strains showed highest sequence similarity with Bacillus and related genera. Strains belonging to the phylum Actinobacteria were identified as members of Arthrobacter, Brachybacterium, Brevibacterium, Curtobacterium, Friedmanniella, Gordonia, Kocuria, Microbacterium, Micrococcus, Micromonospora, Mycobacterium, Rhodococcus, Streptomyces and Williamsia . Two clone libraries were constructed from H3M and H4M samples, providing 288 and 192 clones which were grouped to 150 and 125 OTUs, respectively, by ARDRA. The two most abundant group of the H4M library were OP8-related. The phylum Proteobacteria was represented mostly by delta-Proteobacteria, other relevant groups were Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria and beta-Proteobacteria. The H3M library was dominated by Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, beta-Proteobacteria, gamma-Proteobacteria and delta-Proteobacteria. Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes, Spirochetes and Firmicutes were scarce. Results from the clone libraries were compared to the length-heterogeneity-PCR fingerprints of the communities.