223130930
Nutrient Cycling, Bio-remediation, Marine Symbiosis, Water-Quality indication... It's all impressive for a bacterium that never works out.
Pretty impressive, huh? But it looks more like a hairy sea cucumber than a beach bodybuilder...
Taxonomical Classifications:
Class - Gammaproteobacteria
Order - Vibrionales
Family - Vibrionaceae
Genus - Vibrio
Species - Vibrio alginolyticus
(High-resolution image provided by Alamy, taken from an electron microscope.)
Vibrio alginolyticus is an aquatic bacterial species often found at sea in biofilms.
Its morphology is observed to be circular with smooth, convex surfaces. and its pigmentation is observed to be cream-coloured. They (all Vibrio sp.) are tested to be Gram-negative.
A short briefing on Vibrio alginolyticus.
All _Vibrio _sp. are able to cause disease on an organism called vibriosis, where an organism can be impacted in 3 ways: through wounds in the skin, within the blood, or the gastrointestinal system. These 3 infection pathways include but are not limited to: Skin lesions, fevers, and chills, redness, swelling and pain at the infection site, abdominal cramps, and watery diarrhea.
V. alginolyticus are commonly found within biofilms in and around seawater, estuaries, and sediments where they can attach to a substrate.
V. alginolyticus has 3 metabolic pathways it utilizes. These are glycolysis, TCA cycle, and pyruvate metabolism. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2020.626574/full)
These bacteria also play a necessary role in causing important ecological losses in fish by causing certain epizootic diseases (like vibriosis mentioned prior). (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC106638/#:~:text=One%20of%20these%20organisms%2C%20Vibrio,5%2C%2015%2C%2041)
_V. alginolyticus _ is beneficial in producing PHA, which can be used to produce non-petroleum-based plastics and biodegradable films. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1130368/full#:~:text=Amylases%20are%20classified%20as%20%CE%B1,breakthrough%20achievement%20in%20PHA%20commercialization.)
As mentioned earlier, these bacteria aid in diesel-related spillages and the removal of metals from the soil.
These guys are really tough, that wasn't a joke btw. Antibiotic resistance to various medicines and the constant infections they cause among humans are something that is a reality that they inflict. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.818923/full#:~:text=Antibiotic%2Dresistant%20Vibrio%20alginolyticus%20becomes,such%20dose%20of%20antibiotic%20stress.)
Excuse my late introduction, this was Mnotho Mkhize - 223130930. MICR311.
In addition to all of this stuff, this bacterium can be pathogenic to humans and other aquatic life by infecting skin. However, with phytoplankton and zooplankton, their relationships are generally commensal, with the V. alginolyticus being the beneficiary. (https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/microbiolspec.ve-0003-2014)
