The Arthromitus stage of Bacillus cereus: intestinal symbionts of animals.

ABSTRACT: In the guts of more than 25 species of arthropods we observed filaments containing refractile inclusions previously discovered and named "Arthromitus" in 1849 by Joseph Leidy [Leidy, J. (1849) Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 4, 225-233]. We cultivated these microbes from boiled intestines of 10 different species of surface-cleaned soil insects and isopod crustaceans. Literature review and these observations lead us to conclude that Arthromitus are spore-forming, variably motile, cultivable bacilli. As long rod-shaped bacteria, they lose their flagella, attach by fibers or fuzz to the intestinal epithelium, grow filamentously, and sporulate from their distal ends. When these organisms are incubated in culture, their life history stages are accelerated by light and inhibited by anoxia. Ch

SUBMITTER: Margulis L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC18729 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature