Budula Mpondombi
I have adopted Beggiatoa alba, as a bacterium that I would like to share with everyone. I have chosen this kind of bacterium because am interested in what happens beneath the sea level mainly in the hydrothermal vents. Beggiatoa alba is involved in the production of energy and electrons through the oxidation of sulfide to sulfur and when the sulfide becomes scarce, sulfur is further oxidized to sulfate.
Beggiatoa is a genus of bacteria in the order Thiotrichales. They are named after the Italian medic and botanist F. S. Beggiato. Beggiatoa alba can be found in marine or freshwater environments. They can usually be found in habitats that have high levels of hydrogen sulfide. These environments include cold seeps, sulfur springs, sewage contaminated water, mud layers of lakes, and near deep hydrothermal vents. Beggiatoa alba can also be found in the rhizosphere of swamp plants. These bacterium can also be found in rotten eggs since they are rich in hydrogen sulfide which is the smell that comes out from a rotten egg. The colorless cells are disk-shaped or cylindrical, arranged in long filaments. A massive central vacuole is used for accumulation of nitrate, presumably for use as an electron acceptor in anaerobic sulfide oxidation. The filaments are surrounded by slime and can move by gliding. Beggiatoa alba oxidizes hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as an energy source, forming intracellular sulfur droplets and this form of metabolism is referred to as inorgoxidation (oxidation of inorganic compounds).
The characteristics of the Beggiatoa spp.
Moving bacteria? I believe it's Beggiatoa alba - The moving filament. Amazing
The oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to sulfur and further to sulfate by these bacteria is a major reaction of the global sulfur cycle. All strains of freshwater Beggiatoa demonstrate the ability to grow heterotrophically in the presence of oxygen, yet this growth tends to be limited by the lack of catalase in Beggiatoa species. Their reaction for hydrogen sulfide oxidation is:
2H2S + O2 --> 2S0 + 2H2O
The lack of catalase is compensated for by the organisms' ability to oxidize sulfide, which detoxifies metabolically-formed hydrogen peroxide in the absence of oxygen. Sulfide oxidation provides the bacteria with energy for growth on acetate and is the sole energy source for at least one marine species. The cells are disk-shaped and are motile by a gliding motion. They can exist either as individual cells or as part of a tightly connected filament. _ Beggiatoa _stores elemental sulfur on its outer membrane after using sulfur during respiration.
Description of Beggiatoa in wastewater.
You may not like rotten-egg smell, actually hydrogen sulfide H2S, but Beggiatoa love it. They get their energy from using sunlight to oxydize hydrogen sulfid...
Beggiatoa alba are evident in the marine environment as white filamentous mats on top of sulfide-rich sediments. They are found throughout the world's oceans, everywhere from shallow areas near land to the deep sea and around hydrothermal vents. In areas with overlapping sulfur and oxygen, sulfur bacteria perform diurnal vertical migrations, showing up at dark near the sediment surface. Mats tend to be 0.6 miLlimeters thick, but thickness varies depending on water movement. Beggiatoa alba tend to prefer areas that are rich in hydrogen sulfide, including water that has been contaminated with sewage. Because of this, the mats they form are good indicators of pollution in water.
They appear as a whitish layer and since they are present and flourish in marine environments which have been subject to pollution, they can be considered as an indicator species. Beggiatoa alba and other related filamentous bacteria can cause settling problems in sewage treatment plants, industrial waste lagoons in canning, paper pulping, brewing, milling, causing the phenomenon called "bulking". Beggiatoa alba is also able to detoxify hydrogen sulfide in soil.
