SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM APHRAGMABACTERIA (MARGULIS AND SCHWARTZ 1982)
| EUBACTERIA> FIRMICUTAE> APHRAGMOBACTERIA |
PHYLUM APHRAGMABACTERIA LINKS
| The following description comes mainly from Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Barnes (1984b), Brock et al. (1994), and Tudge (2000). |
- I. SYNONYMS: Mycoplasmas
- II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:
- A. Structure
- Cell Form: Irregularly lobed.
- Cell Wall: Absent or not rigid; 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: Anaerobes or facultative aerobes.
- Substrates: Chemoheterotrophs (text with tooltip) Chemolithotrophs are autotrophs (make their own food) by using inorganic sources for energy and reducing power to fix carbon dioxide into food. or fermentive heterotrophs. Require sterols (text with tooltip) Sterols are ubiquitous as components of membranes in eukaryotes and a few prokaryotes. Cholesterol is a common animal sterol. which they incorporate into their cell membranes (only Acholeplasma does not).
- Products: Variable, among the products are small organic acids (acetic, lactic and formic acids), ethanol, and CO2.
- C. Other: Cells have very small amounts of genetic material; they multiply by binary fission; colonies on solid media have a “fried egg appearance.”
- D. Ecology: Grow 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. and M. T. Madigan. 1984. Biology of Microorganisms. 5th ed. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Brock, T. D., M. T. Madigan, J. M. Martinko, and J. Parker. 1994. Biology of Microorganisms. 7th ed. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Fraser, C. M., J. D. Gocayne, O. White, M. D. Adams, R. A. Clayton, R. D. Fleischmann, C. J. Bult, A. R. Kerlavage, G. Sutton, J. M. Kelley, J. L. Fritchman, J. F. Weidman, K. V. Small, M. Sandusky, J. Fuhrmann, D. Nguyen, T. R. Utterback, D. M. Saudek, C. A. Phillips, J. M. Merrick, J.-F. Tomb, B. A. Dougherty, K. F. Bott, P.-C. Hu, T. S. Lucier, S. N. Peterson, H. O. Smith, C. A. Hutchison III, and J. C. Venter. 1995. The minimal gene compliment of Mycoplasma genitalium. Science. 270(5235): 397-404. 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. Himmelreich, R., H. Hilbert, H. Plagens, E. Pirkl, B.-C. Li, and R. Hermann. 1996. Complete analysis of the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Nucleic Acids Research. 24(22): 4420-4449. Holt, J. G. ed. 1984. Gram-negative bacteria of medical or industrial importance. IN: Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. Volume I. Williams and Wilkins. Baltimore, MD. [L] 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. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. Razin, S., D. Yogev, and Y. Naot. 1998. Molecular biology and pathogenicity of mycoplasmas. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 62(4): 1094-1156. 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 |
