OU Professor Discovers, Names New Bacteria

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- A University of Oklahoma professor who discovered a new bacteria in Norman's water names the microorganism after the city.<br/><br/>Ralph Tanner, a professor of botany and microbiology

Monday, June 19th 2006, 6:13 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- A University of Oklahoma professor who discovered a new bacteria in Norman's water names the microorganism after the city.

Ralph Tanner, a professor of botany and microbiology at OU, says the bacteria found seven years ago in Norman's waste water will be named "Cloacibacterium normanense."

Tanner says the newly named bacteria is yellowish in color and thrives in waste water but does not survive water treatment. It was also found in waste water in Moore.

Since the discovery, Tanner and a group of scientists from Oklahoma to England and Sweden worked to classify the genus by testing what conditions it survives.

The discovery will be published this month in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.