Leucothrix (bacteria)

Leucothrix is a genus of large, filamentous bacteria, which live as epiphytes in marine habitats.

This article is about the genus of bacteria. For the genus of fruit flies, see Leucothrix.

Leucothrix
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Bacteria
Phylum:
Proteobacteria
Class:
Gammaproteobacteria
Order:
Thiotrichales
Family:
Thiotrichaceae
Genus:
Leucothrix
Species

L. mucor
L. pacifica

Systematics

Leucothrix Oersted, 1844 is the type genus of the family Leucothricaceae Buchanan, 1957, but has also been classified in the family Thiotrichaceae (Gammaproteobacteria). There are two species described, L. mucor Oersted, 1844 (type species) and L. pacifica Zhang et al., 2015.[1]

Description

Leucothrix is a large bacterium that forms filaments between 2-3 µm wide and up to 0.5 cm in length. They are usually found as epiphytes on marine plants and algae, but also grow attached to other surfaces like the shells of crustaceans. Like the related genus Thiothrix, individual cells can be released from filaments, forming "gonidia", which can disperse and colonize new surfaces. On a new surface, the gonidial cells associate, produce a holdfast, and develop into rosettes of new filaments.[2][3] Filaments of L. mucor can sometimes grow into knots when cultivated in the laboratory under certain conditions.[4]

Physiologically, Leucothrix are chemoheterotrophic, which distinguishes them from Thiothrix, which are able to use sulfur oxidation as a source of energy.[2]

gollark: Why not?!
gollark: They won't bother you with complaints, see.
gollark: Your program errors and they'll be too distracted to do anything about it.
gollark: Error handling.
gollark: Did you add the hard disk wiping command?

References
  1. Parte, A.C. "Leucothrix". LPSN. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  2. Brock, Thomas D. (2006). "The Genus Leucothrix". In Dworkin, Martin; Falkow, Stanley; Rosenberg, Eugene; Schleifer, Karl-Heinz; Stackebrandt, Erko (eds.). The Prokaryotes. Springer New York. pp. 931–938. doi:10.1007/0-387-30746-x_36. ISBN 9780387254968.
  3. "Leucothrix - Lexikon der Biologie" (in German). Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  4. Brock, Thomas D. (1964-05-15). "Knots in Leucothrix mucor". Science. 144 (3620): 870–872. doi:10.1126/science.144.3620.870. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 14149405.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.