Isolation and initial characterization of microorganisms from a shallow marine hydrothermal system, Vulcano (Italy)

Samples from Vulcano hydrothermal system were incubated at hot temperatures with various electron donors and acceptors in order to isolate and characterize strains belonging from this environment. Eighteen strains were isolated, from which three seemed to belong to new species according to their 16S rRNA sequence. These strains are under phenotypic and genotypic characterization. Cultivation of representative taxa from an environment helps understanding ecological functions of microbial groups in these environments. Although cultivation often fails to isolate all representative prokaryotic taxa, effort of cultivation still can achieve the recovery of poorly characterized microorganisms.