Isolation and properties of an extremely thermophilic xylanolytic bacterium

A strain of extremely thermophilic, anaerobic, xylanolytic bacterium was isolated from the hot spring in Kangding County, Sichuan Province, and it was gram-reaction negative, immobile, non-sporeformative with its cells arranged single or in pairs, 0.7–1.0 μm wide and 2.0–5.0 μm long. After being cultured at 75C for 3 d on xylan agar rolling tube, its colonies were rounded, convex, smooth in margin and transparent, and could not produce pigments, but could produce carbon dioxide, hydrogen, lactic acid, acetic acid and trace ethanol during the fermentation of xylan. Project supported by the Chengdu Di’ ao Science Fund (DASF), the Chinese Academy of Sciences.