Swimming behavior of selected species of Archaea.

ABSTRACT: The swimming behavior of Bacteria has been studied extensively, at least for some species like Escherichia coli. In contrast, almost no data have been published for Archaea on this topic. In a systematic study we asked how the archaeal model organisms Halobacterium salinarum, Methanococcus voltae, Methanococcus maripaludis, Methanocaldococcus jannaschii, Methanocaldococcus villosus, Pyrococcus furiosus, and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius swim and which swimming behavior they exhibit. The two Euryarchaeota M. jannaschii and M. villosus were found to be, by far, the fastest organisms reported up to now, if speed is measured in bodies per second (bps). Their swimming speeds, at close to 400 and 500 bps, are much higher than the speed of the bacterium E. coli or of a very fast animal, like the chee

SUBMITTER: Herzog B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3298134 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature