SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGDOM SPIROCHAETAE (EHRENBERG 1855) AND ITS SINGLE PHYLUM SPIROCHAETOBACTERIA
| EUBACTERIA> PROTEOBACTERIAE> SPIROCHAETAE> SPIROCHAETOBACTERIA |
KINGDOM SPIROCHAETAES LINKS
| The following description comes mainly from Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Barnes (1984), Brock et al. (1994), and Tudge (2000). |
I. SYNONYMS: Spirochaetes
II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:
- A. Structure
- Cell Form: Helically spiral (text with tooltip) A spiral is a cell form that is a cork-screw shaped rod. .
- Cell Wall: Flexible outer 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: Motile (text with tooltip) A motile cell moves by means of flagella. but flagella wind around the cell in the space between the inner and outer membranes; flagella 2->200 flagella inserted at the poles of the cell and overlap in the central region.
- B. Physiology
- O2 Tolerance: Most are obligate anaerobes (text with tooltip) An obligate anaerobe is a cell that is poisoned in the presence of free oxygen. .
- Substrates: Chemoheterotrophs; typically, they ferment sugars and amino acids.
- Products: The fermentation products are CO2, small organic acids and alcohols.
- C. Other: Cells single and move in complex loops and coils.
- D. Ecology: Free-living, particularly in organic-rich and oxygen-poor environments. Also, they grow as commensals and as parasites of plants and animals.
| 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. Hoover, R. B., E. V. Pikuta, A. K. Bej, D. Marsic, W. B. Whitman, J. Tang, and P. Krader. 2003. Spirochaeta americana sp. nov., a new haloalkaliphilic, obligately anaerobic spirochaete isolated from soda Mono Lake in California. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 53: 815-821. 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. Magot, M., M.-L. Fardeau, O. Arnauld, C. Lanau, B. Olivier, P. Thomas, and B. K. C. Patel. 1993. Spirochaeta smaragdinae sp. nov., a new mesophilic strictly anaerobic spirochete from an oil field. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 155: 185-191. Margulis, L. 1993. Symbiosis in Cell Evolution. Freeman. New York. Margulis, L., M. F. Dolan, and R. Guerrero. 2000. The chimeric eukaryote: Origin of the nucleus from the karyomastigont in amitochondriate protists. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 97(13): 6954-6959. Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1988. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 2nd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. 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. 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. Woese, C. R. and G. E. Fox. 1977. Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA . 74:5088-5090. Woese, C. R., O. Kandler, and M. L. Wheelis. 1990. Towards a natural system of organisms: Proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 87: 4576-4579. |
| By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 02/08/2012 |
