Bacteria sulphur

Of the sulphur bacteria, which oxidize hydrogen sulphide, the genera Beggiatoa and Thiothrix are of significance for drinking water and process water supplies. 

158 - 160. 1) = Beggiatoa alba ( White Sulphur Bacteria ) These are 

These sulphur bacteria form colourless filaments. In contrast to the Thio-rhodaceae, which like high hydrogen sulphide levels, the Thiothrix types prefer habitats with hydrogen sulphide concentrations below mg/1. 

In addition to the filament-shaped sulphur bacteria, there are coccoid forms, which as a rule form reddish pigments. The most well-known representative of these sulphur bacteria is Chromatium okenii, also known as red sulphur bacterium , and Lamprocystis roseo-persicina. The latter is often to be found on water plants and forms a pink-coloured covering when it develops en masse. 

The pH, redox potential, light and ox gen conditions as well as temperature, presence of organic and inorganic substances and the movement of the water, all play a role in the mass development of sulphur bacteria. In water supply systems, sulphur bacteria can cause or favour corrosion and its occurrence always indicates the presence of hydrogen sulphide in the system. Mass development of sulphur bacteria is always undesirable, even if sulphur bacteria themselves do not play a particular role in epidemic-hygiene terms. 

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Smith NA, DP Kelly (1988) Isolation and physiological characterization of autotrophic sulphur bacteria oxidizing dimethyl disulphide as sole source of energy. J Gen Microbiol 134 1407-1417. 

The discovery of the deep sea hydrothermal systems, and the sulphur-metabolising bacteria which live in them, caused some researchers to look more closely at the element sulphur. It seemed obvious to consider a link between sulphur bacteria— primitive life forms—and the emergence of the simplest forms of life, de Duve, 1974 Nobel Prize winner for medicine, joined the ranks of the biogenesis researchers in the 1980s. 

Kelly DP. 1989. Physiology and biochemistry of unicellular sulphur bacteria. In Schlegel HG, Bowien B, editors. Autotrophic bacteria. New York Springer-Verlag. p 193-216. 

Boxma B, Voncken F, Jannink S, van Alen T, Akhmanova A, van Weelden SWH, van Hellemond JJ, Ricard G, Huynen M, Tielens AGM, Hackstein JHP (2004) The anaerobic chytridiomycete fungus Piromyces spE2 produces ethanol via pyruvate formate lyase and an alcohol dehydrogenase E. Mol Microbiol 51 1389-1399 Brocks JJ, Love GD, Summons RE, Knoll AH, Logan GA, Bowden SA (2005) Biomarker evidence for green and purple sulphur bacteria in a stratified Palaeoproterozoic sea. Nature 437 866-870... 

V. D. Fedorov (1961). Phosphorus metabolism in geen sulphur bacteria in relation to the photoassimilation of carbon dioxide (in Russian). Candidate s Thesis, Moscow State University, Moscow. 

The reaction centre found in many purple non-sulphur bacteria is a simple example of a group of proteins that are natureis solar batteries. The reaction centre uses the energy of sunlight to generate positive and negative charges on opposite sides of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. This potential difference drives a circuit of electron transfer reactions that are linked to proton translocation across this membrane. 

Takahashi, E., and Wraight, C. A., 1994, Molecular genetic manipulation and characterization of mutant photosynthetic reaction centers from purple non-sulphur bacteria. In Advances in Molecular and Cell Biology Molecular Processes in Photosynthesis, (J. Barber, ed.)... 

Fenchel T. and Bernard C. (1995) Mats of colourless sulphur bacteria 1. Major microbial processes. Mar. Ecol Prog. Ser. 128, 161-170. 

Summons R. E. and Powell T. G. (1987) Identification of aryl isoprenoids in source rocks and crude oils biological markers for the green sulphur bacteria. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 51, 557-566. 

Van Niel C. B. (1931) On the morphology and physiology of the purple and green sulphur bacteria. Arch. Microbiol. 3, 1-112. 

Parker, C.D., 1947. Species of sulphur bacteria associated with the corrosion of concrete. Nature, 159 439—441. 

Along depositional strike from the shallow-water reefs, in quiet backwaters between delta distributaries, microbial mat communities exploited the niche between relatively oxidized waters and reducing organic-rich muds, which included debris from local microbes, and, if present, picoplanktonic cyanobacteria and possibly magnetotactic bacteria. Oxygen release from cyanobacterial photosynthesis would have provided oxidation power in the water above the sulphur bacteria mats. 

The Archaean atmosphere-ocean system was probably less oxic than today, but supply of oxidant would have occurred nevertheless as, in an Archaean C02-based atmosphere, volcanic sulphur and nitrogen sources would have provided SO t and NO, or precursors that would have been oxidized in the atmosphere to and NO. Together with nitrogen-fixing by lightning, this would have supplied sulphate and nitrate for use by microbes living in mud that contained picoplankton debris, to sustain mats, possibly of colourless sulphur bacteria. The REE record a distant hydrothermal input, which, depending on water currents, supplied metals and perhaps episodes of reduction. 

Within this setting, in shallow coastal water conditions, consortia of bacteria set up microbial mat columns to exploit the supply of sulphate and nitrate from water. In the muds below the mats, methanogens were active, and above them methane-oxidizing bacteria. The waters were enriched chemically by contributions from hydro-thermal water plumes, either from the laterally equivalent beginnings of Reliance Fm volcanism elsewhere in the basin, or from more distant oceanic sources. Photosynthetic green sulphur bacteria may have oxidized H2S to S°, whereas sulphate and sulphur reducers operated in the reverse direction. 

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