Novel, attached, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria at shallow hydrothermal vents possess vacuoles not involved in respiratory nitrate accumulation.

ABSTRACT: Novel, vacuolate sulfur bacteria occur at shallow hydrothermal vents near White Point, Calif. There, these filaments are attached densely to diverse biotic and abiotic substrates and extend one to several centimeters into the surrounding environment, where they are alternately exposed to sulfidic and oxygenated seawater. Characterizations of native filaments collected from this location indicate that these filaments possess novel morphological and physiological properties compared to all other vacuolate bacteria characterized to date. Attached filaments, ranging in diameter from 4 to 100 microm or more, were composed of cylindrical cells, each containing a thin annulus of sulfur globule-filled cytoplasm surrounding a large central vacuole. A near-complete 16S rRNA gene sequence was obtaine

SUBMITTER: Kalanetra KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC535177 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature