| Cross Index | Saprospira |
| SuperSet | Prokaryote, Eubacteria Gliding Bacteria |
| Compare | Cytophagales, Beggiatoales Single
Celled, rod shaped Capnocytophaga,
Chitinophaga
pinensis , Cytophaga, Flexibacter,
Flexithrix dorotheae,
Lysobacter,
Microscilla,
Sporocytophaga
myxococcoides, Thermomena, |
| Contrast | Archaea |
| Subset |
| Morphology | Saprospira |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | Gram-negative |
| Morphology | Helical filaments, multicellular, unbranched and without sheaths, 10-500 um long, filaments 0.5-3 um wide. Length of cells 1.5-5.5 um |
| Motility | Move by gliding in longitudinal direction; simultaneously the screws rotate around their long axes |
| Specialized structures | Resting stages not known |
| Division |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface | Colonies often have a regular pattern of stripes Most strains are pigmented: pink, yellow, orange or brick-red |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Saprospira |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Tropism | organotrophs |
| Oxygen | Strictly aerobic |
| pH | |
| Temperature | |
| Requirements | require amino acid mixtures, peptones or proteins as nitrogen source and often, perhaps always, as carbon and energy sources |
| Products | |
| Enzymes | |
| Unique features |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | Aquatic organisms living in bottom sediments in marine and freshwater environments. |
| Lifestyle | |
| Pathogenicity |
| Distribution |
| Genome | Saprospira |
| G+C Mol % | 33-48 (Bd, Tm) |
| Reference | Saprospira |
| First citation | Gross,J.1911. Uber freilebende Spironemaceen. Mitt. Zool. Stat. Neapel 20:188-203 |
| The Prokaryotes | |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p 2077 H. Reichenbach |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 497 |
| References |