Beggiatoa is a genus of Gammaproteobacteria belonging to the order Thiotrichales, in the Pseudomonadota phylum. These bacteria form colorless filaments composed of cells that can be up to 200 μm in diameter, and are one of the largest prokaryotes on Earth. Beggiatoa are chemolithotrophic sulfur-oxidizers, using reduced sulfur species as an energy source. They live in sulfur-rich environments such as soil, both marine and freshwater, in the deep sea hydrothermal vents, and in polluted marine environments. In association with other sulfur bacteria, e.g. Thiothrix, they can form biofilms that are visible to the naked eye as mats of long white filaments; the white color is due to sulfur globules stored inside the cells.
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👉 Beggiatoa in the context of Lamellibrachia luymesi
Lamellibrachia luymesi is a species of tube worms in the family Siboglinidae. It lives at deep-sea cold seeps where hydrocarbons (oil and methane) are leaking out of the seafloor. It is entirely reliant on internal, sulfide-oxidizing bacterial symbionts for its nutrition. These are located in a centrally located "trophosome".
Lamellibrachia luymesi provides the bacteria with hydrogen sulfide and oxygen by taking them up from the environment and binding them to a specialized hemoglobin molecule. Unlike the tube worms Riftia pachyptila that live at hydrothermal vents, L. luymesi uses a posterior extension of its body called the root to take up hydrogen sulfide from the seep sediments. L. luymesi may also help fuel the generation of sulfide by excreting sulfate through their roots into the sediments below the aggregations.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Beggiatoa
- 👉 Beggiatoa in the context of Lamellibrachia luymesi
- Beggiatoa in the context of Winogradsky column
- Beggiatoa in the context of Sergei Winogradsky
- Beggiatoa in the context of Thiothrix
Beggiatoa in the context of Winogradsky column
The Winogradsky column is a simple device for culturing a large diversity of microorganisms. Invented in the 1880s by Sergei Winogradsky, the device is a column of pond mud and water mixed with a carbon source such as newspaper (containing cellulose), blackened marshmallows or egg-shells (containing calcium carbonate), and a sulfur source such as gypsum (calcium sulfate) or egg yolk. Incubating the column in sunlight for months results in an aerobic/anaerobic gradient as well as a sulfide gradient. These two gradients promote the growth of different microorganisms such as Clostridium, Desulfovibrio, Chlorobium, Chromatium, Rhodomicrobium, and Beggiatoa, as well as many other species of bacteria, cyanobacteria, and algae.
The column provides numerous gradients, depending on additive nutrients, from which the variety of aforementioned organisms can grow. The aerobic water phase and anaerobic mud or soil phase are one such distinction. Because of oxygen's low solubility in water, the water quickly becomes anoxic towards the interface of the mud and water. Anaerobic phototrophs are still present to a large extent in the mud phase, and there is still capacity for biofilm creation and colony expansion. Algae and other aerobic phototrophs are present along the surface and water of the upper half of the columns.
View the full Wikipedia page for Winogradsky columnBeggiatoa in the context of Sergei Winogradsky
Sergei Nikolaevich Winogradsky ForMemRS (Russian: Сергей Николаевич Виноградский; Ukrainian: Сергій Миколайович Виноградський; 13 September [O.S. 1 September] 1856 – 24 February 1953), also published under the name Sergius Winogradsky, was a Ukrainian microbiologist, ecologist and soil scientist who pioneered the cycle-of-life concept. Winogradsky discovered the first known form of lithotrophy during his research with Beggiatoa in 1887. He reported that Beggiatoa oxidized hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as an energy source and formed intracellular sulfur droplets. This research provided the first example of lithotrophy, but not autotrophy. Born in the capital of present-day Ukraine, his legacy is also celebrated by this nation.
His research on nitrifying bacteria would report the first known form of chemoautotrophy, showing how a lithotroph fixes carbon dioxide (CO2) to make organic compounds.
View the full Wikipedia page for Sergei WinogradskyBeggiatoa in the context of Thiothrix
Thiothrix is a genus of filamentous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, related to the genera Beggiatoa and Thioploca. They are usually Gram-negative (but can be Gram-variable) and rod-shaped (0.7–1.5 μm in width by 1.2–2.5 μm in length). They form ensheathed multicellular filaments that are attached at the base, and form gonidia at their free end. The apical gonidia have gliding motility. Rosettes of the filaments are not always formed but are typical. Sulfur is deposited in invaginations within the cell membrane.
View the full Wikipedia page for Thiothrix