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The Family Beggiatoaceae

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

The family Beggiatoaceae contains a wide range of morphologically conspicuous, aerobic, or nitrate-dependent sulfide-oxidizing bacteria that span the range from obligate sulfur-based chemolithoautotrophy to heterotrophic growth supplemented by sulfur oxidation. The Beggiatoaceae are the model organisms for the concept of chemolithotrophy, developed by Sergei Winogradsky during his postgraduate studies using natural populations of filamentous freshwater Beggiatoaceae collected in sulfur springs. Since the metabolism of the Beggiatoaceae requires access to reduced sulfur species and oxidants such as oxygen or nitrate, these bacteria thrive in microbial mats, surficial sediments, and sediment–water interfaces where these electron donors and acceptors coexist and can be intercepted for microbial energy generation before gradual abiotic sulfide oxidation sets in. All Beggiatoaceae have the ability to oxidize sulfide to elemental sulfur that is stored as intracellular sulfur globules, which make the cells highly refractory and conspicuous with the unaided eye and under the microscope. This characteristic, together with the absence of photosynthetic pigments, has led to their traditional designation as members of the “colorless sulfur bacteria,” in contrast to the photosynthetic purple and green sulfur bacteria or the cyanobacteria. The white, yellow, or occasionally orange color of the Beggiatoaceae, their frequently filamentous or chain-like morphology, their growth pattern in flocs and mats on sediment surfaces, and their large cell size and capacity for storing several different compounds intracellularly have made these organisms fascinating research targets. Extensive microscopic and morphological surveys have focused on these bacteria since the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. To a surprising extent, early microscopic and morphological observations on large, morphologically conspicuous sulfur bacteria can be reintegrated into the emerging molecular and phenotypic taxonomy of the Beggiatoaceae today.

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Acknowledgments

The authors of this chapter were supported by NSF (OCE 0647633; MO/MIP 0801741) and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SA 250/1-1). We thank Jake Bailey, Manabu Fukui, Jan Küver, Ian McDonald, Stefanie Meyer, Marc Mussmann, and Thomas R. Neu for generously providing illustrations. We thank Heide Schulz-Vogt and Victor A. Gallardo for careful edits and suggestions that substantially improved this chapter.

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  1. Department of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 3117B Venable Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-CB 3300, USA

    Andreas Teske & Verena Salman

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  1. Andreas Teske
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  2. Verena Salman
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Correspondence to Andreas Teske .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  3. Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stephen Lory

  5. Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

  6. Laboratory of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabiano Thompson

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Teske, A., Salman, V. (2014). The Family Beggiatoaceae . In: Rosenberg, E., DeLong, E.F., Lory, S., Stackebrandt, E., Thompson, F. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38922-1_290

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