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The Genus Beggiatoa

  • Chapter
The Prokaryotes

Abstract

The genus Beggiatoa is currently represented by a single defined species Beggiatoa alba (Strohl, 1989). However, this species designation is commonly used for any colorless, filamentous, gliding bacterium that deposits internal globules of elemental sulfur but does not form bundles of trichomes within a common sheath. Organisms with a variety of filament widths, ranging from 1–120 gm, have been observed in native material and are assumed to belong to this genus (Jorgensen, 1977; Klas, 1937; Nelson et al., 1989b), but a single phylogenetic affinity group is by no means proven. Beggiatoa is of historical importance because Winogradsky’s (1887) earliest experiments, which ultimately led to development of the concept of bacterial chemoautotrophy, were performed with natural enrichments of this organism (see Brock and Schlegel, 1989).

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Authors
  1. Douglas C. Nelson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emory University, 105 Bay Colt Road, 30201, Alpharetta, GA, USA

    Albert Balows

  2. Institute for Microbiology, University of Bonn, D-5300, Bonn 1, Germany

    Hans G. Trüper

  3. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Martin Dworkin

  4. TNO Institute of Environmental Sciences, 2600 AE, Delft, The Netherlands

    Wim Harder

  5. Department of Microbiology, Technical University, D-8000, Munich 2, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

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Nelson, D.C. (1992). The Genus Beggiatoa . In: Balows, A., Trüper, H.G., Dworkin, M., Harder, W., Schleifer, KH. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2191-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2191-1_4

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