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SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM BETAPROTEOBACTERIA

SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM BETAPROTEOBACTERIA

EUBACTERIA> PROTEOBACTERIAE> BETAPROTEOBACTERIA
PHYLUM BETAPROTEOBACTERIA LINKS

Description of Phylum

Hierarchical Classification

The following description comes mainly from Garrity et al. (2003).
  • I. SYNONYMS: β-proteobacteria, nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
  • II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:
    • A. Structure
      • Cell Form: Variable; rods (text with tooltip) A rod is an elongate cell form such that it has distinct ends (called poles). , cocci (text with tooltip) A coccus (cocci, pl.) is a spherical cell form. , spirals (text with tooltip) A spiral is a cell form that is a cork-screw shaped rod. ; and 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. .
      • 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 or motile (text with tooltip) Motile comes from the Latin, motus, a participle of the verb movere, which means to move. Although the Latin word means general movement, the Biological term means a cell or colony of cells that move by means of flagella. ; some are mobile (move without flagella in contact with a substrate).
    • B. Physiology
      • O2 Tolerance: Aerobes (text with tooltip) Aerobes is derived from Greek terms aero (air) and bios (life). Aerobes (n) are those bacteria that require free oxygen for metabolism. or facultative anaerobes.
      • Substrates: Some obtain their carbon from CO2 and a variety of organic sources. Electron sources are sulfur compounds and hydrogen. Others utilize ammonium and other nitrogen compounds. Most are chemoorganotrophs (text with tooltip) Chemoorganotrophs utilize organic sources for energy and food production. and chemolithotrophs (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. .
      • Products: They produce a variety of oxidized carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur compounds.
    • C. Other: Very diverse group of bacteria.
    • D. Ecology: Free-living in soils and aquatic sediments; some are nodule-formers.
LITERATURE CITED

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.

Emerson, D., J. A. Rentz, T. G. Lilburn, R. E. Davis, H. Aldrich, C. Chan, and C. L. Moyer. 2007. A novel lineage of Proteobacteria involved in formation of marine Fe-oxidizing microbial mat communities. PLoS ONE. 2007 (8): e667. http://www.plosone.org

Gao, B. and R. S. Gupta. 2007. Phylogenetic analysis of proteins that are distinctive of Archaea and its main subgroups and the origin of methanogenesis. BMC Genomics. 8:86. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/8/86.

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.

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.

Stackebrandt, E., R. G. E. Murray, and H. G. Trüper. 1988. Proteobacteria classis nov., a name for the phylogenetic taxon that includes the “Purple Bacteria and Their Relatives”. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 38(3): 321-325.

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.

Williams, K. P., B. W. Sobral, and A. W. Dickerman. 2007. A robust species tree for the Alphaproteobacteria. Journal of Bacteriology. 189(13): 4578-4586.

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: 02/18/2013
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