Molecular evidence that the capacity for endosporulation is universal among phototrophic heliobacteria

Although enrichment cultures for anoxygenic phototrophic heliobacteria commonly contain sporulating cells, once strains of heliobacteria are obtained in pure culture, they all but cease to sporulate. In fact, some species of heliobacteria have never been observed to sporulate. Thus, despite their phylogenetic connection to endospore-forming bacteria, the question of sporulation capacity in heliobacteria remains open. We have investigated this problem using PCR and Southern hybridization as tools and show here that all recognized species of heliobacteria tested, as well as several unclassified strains, contain homologs to the ssp genes of Clostridium and Bacillus species, genes that encode key sporulation-specific proteins. It can therefore be concluded that as a group, heliobacteria are likely all to be endospore-forming bacteria in agreement with their phylogenetic placement within the 'low GC' Gram-positive bacteria.