Size Matters: Ultra-small and Filterable Microorganisms in the Environment.

ABSTRACT: Ultra-small microorganisms are ubiquitous in Earth's environments. Ultramicrobacteria, which are defined as having a cell volume of <0.1 μm3, are often numerically dominant in aqueous environments. Cultivated representatives among these bacteria, such as members of the marine SAR11 clade (e.g., "Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique") and freshwater Actinobacteria and Betaproteobacteria, possess highly streamlined, small genomes and unique ecophysiological traits. Many ultramicrobacteria may pass through a 0.2-μm-pore-sized filter, which is commonly used for filter sterilization in various fields and processes. Cultivation efforts focusing on filterable small microorganisms revealed that filtered fractions contained not only ultramicrocells (i.e., miniaturized cells because of external factors) a

SUBMITTER: Nakai R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7308576 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature