Morphological Plasticity in a Sulfur-Oxidizing Marine Bacterium from the SUP05 Clade Enhances Dark Carbon Fixation.

ABSTRACT: Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria from the SUP05 clade are abundant in anoxic and oxygenated marine waters that appear to lack reduced sources of sulfur for cell growth. This raises questions about how these chemosynthetic bacteria survive across oxygen and sulfur gradients and how their mode of survival impacts the environment. Here, we use growth experiments, proteomics, and cryo-electron tomography to show that a SUP05 isolate, "Candidatus Thioglobus autotrophicus," is amorphous in shape and several times larger and stores considerably more intracellular sulfur when it respires oxygen. We also show that these cells can use diverse sources of reduced organic and inorganic sulfur at submicromolar concentrations. Enhanced cell size, carbon content, and metabolic activity of the aerobic phen

SUBMITTER: Shah V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6509183 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature