SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGDOM CHLOROSULFATAE AND ITS SINGLE PHYLUM CHLOROBACTERIA
| EUBACTERIA> PROTEOBACTERIAE> CHLOROSULFATAE> CHLOROBACTERIA |
KINGDOM CHLOROSULFATAE LINKS
| The following description comes mainly from Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Barnes (1984), Brock et al. (1994), and Tudge (2000). |
I. SYNONYMS: Anaerobic phototrophic bacteria, anoxygenic green sulfur bacteria.
II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:
- A. Structure
- Cell Form: Rods (text with tooltip) A rod is an elongate cell form such that it has distinct ends (called poles). .
- Cell Wall: Gram- (text with tooltip) A Gram - cell loses the blue-black crystal-violet color following destaining with alcohol during the Gram Stain procedure. Then, it takes on the color of the counterstain, typically iodine. .
- Motility: Non-motile.
- B. Physiology
- O2 Tolerance: Most are obligate anaerobes.
- Substrates: Photoheterotrophs; they use light energy to generate ATP, and they use H2, H2S, or reduced sulfur compounds to reduce CO2 to a form of organic carbon. They generally have the ability to take reduced sulfur species (sulfide, thiosulfide or sulfite) and oxidize them to sulfate or elemental sulfur.
- Products: Food (or reduced, organic carbon); sulfate or elemental sulfur; they may also fix nitrogen.
- C. Other: They contain bacteriochlorophylls (text with tooltip) Bacteriochlorophylls are prokaryotic photosynthetic pigments that are related to chlorophylls of eukaryotes. c and d or e on thylakoids (text with tooltip) Thylakoids are membranes, usually stacked, on which the photosynthetic pigments and enzymes are located. or photosynthetic membranes called chlorosomes.
- D. Ecology: Green or brown in appearance. Found in anaerobic aquatic environments which contain reduced compounds and sufficient sunlight to allow photosynthesis. Typically, they occur in anoxic regions of clear lakes, sulfur springs, and anoxic sediments in salt marshes.
| 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. 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. Holt, J. G. ed. 1989b. Other gram-positive bacteria. IN: Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. Volume IV. Williams and Wilkins. Baltimore, MD. [L] Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. 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: 02/11/2013 |
