Abstract
The first description of a bacterium that produced twisted bundles of thin filaments which contained oxidized iron was given by Cholodny (1924). He called this organism Leptothrix trichogenes,the filament-producing Leptothrix. The flexible bacterium was observed in a water basin next to the river Dnjepr near Kiev, Russia. Its cells (diameter approximately 0.5 μm) were connected to form a trichome of up to 400 μm in length. A peculiar movement was observed: the U-shaped trichome glided with its rounded part forward; both ends of the trichome left bundles of twisted filaments of polymer as parallel “railroad tracks.” Occasionally, parts of the bundles appeared to be drawn out in a fanshaped fashion (Figs. 1a, 2).
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Hirsch, P. (1992). The Genus Toxothrix . 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_65
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2191-1_65
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