SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGDOM CHLOROFLEXAE AND ITS SINGLE PHYLUM CHLOROFLEXOBACTERIA (BOTH FORMAL NAMES ARE DERIVED FROM GARRITY AND HOLT 2001)
| EUBACTERIA> PROTEOBACTERIAE> CHLOROFLEXAE> CHLOROFLEXOBACTERIA |
KINGDOM CHLOROFLEXAE LINKS
| The following description comes mainly from Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Barnes (1984b), Brock et al. (1994), and Tudge (2000). |
I. SYNONYMS: Green nonsulfur phototrophs.
II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS
- A. Structure
- Cell Form: Filaments (text with tooltip) A filament is a linear array of cells. In the Cyanobacteria, a filament is the linear array of cells (trichome) plus the surrounding mucilaginous sheath. , some cells quite large; Thermomicrobia are cocci or small rods.
- Cell Wall: Gram-; Sphaerobacter is Gram+
- Motility: Non-motile with gliding filaments.
- B. Physiology
- O2 Tolerance: Tolerant of free oxygen; Thermomicrobia are obligate aerobes.
- Substrates: Photoautotrophs (text with tooltip) Phototrophs utilize light energy to provide metabolic energy. Sometimes this energy is stored asreduced organic compounds (food). with fixation of CO2 and reduction by H2S or H2. Facultative heterotrophs with a variety of small organic compounds as food sources. Thermomicrobia are chemoheterotrophic.
- Products:
- C. Other: No gas vesicles in cells. Instead, pigmented, photosynthetic vesicles with plant-like carotenoids and chlorosomes (text with tooltip) Chlorosomes are thyllakoid-like structures. ( thylakoid (text with tooltip) Thylakoids are membranes, usually stacked, on which the photosynthetic pigments and enzymes are located. -like structures) that contain bacteriochlorophylls (text with tooltip) Bacteriochlorophylls are prokaryotic photosynthetic pigments that are related to chlorophylls of eukaryotes. . Thermomicrobia have no pigments
- D. Ecology: Grow as mats in aquatic habitats, some tolerant of high temperatures (up to 70C).
| LITERATURE CITED Barnes, R. S. K. 1984b. Kingdom Monera. IN: Barnes, R.S.K., ed. A synoptic classification of living organisms. Sinauer Associates. Sunderland, Mass. Black, J. G. 2002. Microbiology, Principles and Explorations. 5th ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York. Brock, T. D., M.T. Madigan, J.M. Martinko, and J. Parker. 1994. Biology of Microorganisms. 7th ed. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Galperin, M. Y. 2008. Social bacteria and asocial eukaryotes. Environmental Microbiology. 10(2): 281-288. Garrity, G. M., M. Winters, and D. Searles. 2001. Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag. New York. Garrity, G. M., J. A. Bell, and T. G. Lilburn. 2003. Taxonomic Outline of the Prokaryotes. Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. 2nd edition. Release 4.0. Springer-Verlag. New York. pp. 1-397. Holt, J. G., ed. 1989a. Other gram-negative bacteria, Cyanobacteria, Archaea. IN: Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. Volume III. Williams and Wilkins. Baltimore, MD. Hugenholtz, P. and E. Stackenbrandt. 2004. Reclassification of Sphaerobacter thermophilus from the subclass Sphaerobacteridae in the phylum Actinobacteria to the class Thermomicrobia (emended description) in the phylum Chloroflexi (emended description). International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 54: 2049-2051. Jurkevitch, E. 2007. Predatory behaviors in bacteria—diversity and transitions. Microbe. 2: 67-73. Krieg, N. R. 1984. Gram-negative aerobic rods and cocci. In: Krieg, N. R. and J. G. Holt, eds. Bergey´s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, Vol. 1: 140-408. Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five Kingdoms, an Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth. 3nd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. Quinn, G. R. and V. B. D. Skerman. 1980. Herpetosiphon – nature’s scavenger? Curr. Microbiol. 4: 57-62. Stackenbrandt, E., F. A. Rainey, and N. L. Ward-Rainey. 1997. Proposal for a newhierarchic classification system, Actinobacteria classis nov. Int. J. Sys. Bacteriol. 47: 479-491. Tudge, C. 2000. The Variety of Life, A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures That Have Ever Lived. Oxford University Press. New York. |
| By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 02/06/2013 |
