| Cross Index | Vitreoscilla |
| SuperSet | Prokaryote, Eubacteria Glidng Bacteria |
| Compare | Cytophagales, Beggiatoales Single
Celled, rod shaped Capnocytophaga,
Chitinophaga
pinensis , Cytophaga, Flexibacter,
Flexithrix dorotheae,
Lysobacter,
Microscilla,
Sporocytophaga
myxococcoides, Thermomena, |
| Contrast | Archaea |
| Subset |
| Morphology | Vitreoscilla |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | Gram-negative |
| Morphology | Organisms exist in colourless filaments, which contain cells with diameters of 1 to about 3 um and lengths of 1-12 um; cells may be clearly delimited and barrel-shaped or may be undelimited and cylindrical (similar to Beggiatoa). Filaments may contain from 1 to > 40 cells |
| Motility | Motile by gliding; no locomotor organelles known. |
| Specialized structures | Cell division is by transverse binary fission; dispersion is by fragmentation of filaments or by sacrificial cell death and necridia formation in species similar to the beggiatoas. Resting stages are now known.Sheaths or holdfasts are not produced |
| Division |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Vitreoscilla |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Tropism | Chemoorganotrophs |
| Oxygen | Aerobic to microaerophilic. Metabolism is respiratory with molecular oxygen as sole known terminal electron acceptor. |
| pH | |
| Temperature | |
| Requirements | Nutritional requirements vary among species, with the simplest organic requirement being acetate as sole carbon and energy sources and with the more complex requirements being for groups of amino acids |
| Products | Sulfur inclusions are not formed from hydrogen sulfide or thiosulfate |
| Enzymes | |
| Unique features | Cell walls of V.
stercoraria are composed of the amino acids alanine,
glutamate, and diaminopimelic acid with approximate molar
ratios of 2:1:1 The larger Vitreoscilla species show similarities to certain Beggiatoa strains, with the exception to their inability to deposit sulfur when exposed to hydrogen sulfide. |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | |
| Lifestyle | |
| Pathogenicity |
| Distribution |
| Genome | Vitreoscilla |
| G+C Mol % | 42 (Tm, Bd) - 63(Tm) |
| Reference | Vitreoscilla |
| First citation | Pringsheim,E.G. 1949 The relationship between bacteria and the Myxophyceae Bacteriol Rev 13: 47-91 (see page 70) |
| The Prokaryotes | |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p 2124 Wm R. Strohl |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 499 |
| References | Pringsheim, E.G. 1951
The Vitreoscillaceae: a family of colourless, gliding,
filamentous organisms J.Gen Microbiol 5: 124-149 Pringsheim,E.G.
1949 Iron bacteria. Biol Rev. Cambridge Philos. Soc.
24:200-245 |