Halomonas titanicae

Halomonas titanicae is discovered on a piece of rust from the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 2009 bacterial species of the genus Halomonas. This species belongs to such as all kinds of Proteobacteria to the Gram- negative bacteria and their metabolism is heterotrophic and aerobic.

Discovery site

The wreck of the Titanic bears in many places now orange beards of rust ( Rusticles ) that are formed and inhabited by numerous species of bacteria. From one of these salvaged in 1991 by a Russian submarine porous rust journal, the researchers then bacteria, which they initially designated with the abbreviation BH1T isolated.

They were able to demonstrate that the type of bacteria genus Halomonas heard and the characteristics of this strain of the other species representatives are sufficiently different in comparison to those to taxonomically assign it a distinct species.

Importance

According to the scientists, this bacterium is responsible, along with other iron-oxidizing microorganisms for the slow decay of the wreck of the former luxury liner drop in 1912 and they expect that overall principle play a significant role in the degradation of iron structures under water. This new finding is likely in their opinion, in the future have an important meaning for the planning, construction and maintenance of modern underwater structures such as pipelines.