| Betaproteobacteria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Colonies of Burkholderia pseudomallei, one of many pathogenic Betaproteobacteria. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Phylum: | Pseudomonadota |
| Class: | Betaproteobacteria |
| Orders | |
Burkholderiales Contents | |
Betaproteobacteria are a class of Gram-negative bacteria, and one of the eight classes of the phylum Pseudomonadota (synonym Proteobacteria). [1]
The Betaproteobacteria comprise over 75 genera and 400 species. [2] Together, they represent a broad variety of metabolic strategies and occupy diverse environments, ranging from obligate pathogens living within host organisms to oligotrophic groundwater ecosystems. Whilst most members of the Betaproteobacteria are heterotrophic, deriving both their carbon and electrons from organocarbon sources, some are photoheterotrophic, deriving energy from light and carbon from organocarbon sources. Other genera are autotrophic, deriving their carbon from bicarbonate or carbon dioxide and their electrons from reduced inorganic ions such as nitrite, ammonium, thiosulfate or sulfide [1] — many of these chemolithoautotrophic.
Betaproteobacteria are economically important, with roles in maintaining soil pH and in elementary cycling. Some economically important members of the Betaproteobacteria use nitrate as their terminal electron acceptor and can be used industrially to remove nitrate from wastewater by denitrification. A number of Betaproteobacteria are diazotrophs, meaning that they can fix molecular nitrogen from the air as their nitrogen source for growth – this is important to the farming industry as it is a primary means of ammonium levels in soils rising without the presence of leguminous plants.
The Betaproteobacteria are one of the eight classes that make up the Pseudomonadota ("Proteobacteria"). The Betaproteobacteria are most closely related to the Gammaproteobacteria , Acidithiobacillia and Hydrogenophilalia , which together make up a taxon which has previously been called "Chromatibacteria". [2]
Four orders of Betaproteobacteria are currently recognised — the Burkholderiales , the Neisseriales , the Nitrosomonadales and the Rhodocyclales . [3] The name "Procabacteriales" was also proposed for an order of endosymbionts of Acanthamoeba , but since they cannot be grown in culture and studies have been limited, the name has never been validly or effectively published, and thus is no more than a nickname without any standing in nomenclature. [4] [5]
An extensive reclassification of families and orders of the class based on a polyphasic analysis (including 16S rRNA gene analyses and 53-protein ribosomal protein concatamer analyses using the rMLST Multilocus sequence typing system) was published in 2017, that removed the order Hydrogenophilales from the class and into a novel class of the "Pseudomonadota", the Hydrogenophilalia . [3] The same study also merged the former order Methylophilales into the Nitrosomonadales . [3]
The four orders of the Betaproteobacteria are:
Some members of the Betaproteobacteria can cause disease in various eukaryotic organisms, including humans. For example, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis cause gonorrhea and meningitis respectively, while Bordetella pertussis causes whooping cough. Other members of the class infect plants, such as Ralstonia solanacearum which causes bacterial wilt disease of over 250 plant species, Burkholderia cepacia which causes bulb rot in onions, and Xylophilus ampelinus which causes necrosis of grapevines. [6]
Betaproteobacteria play an important role in denitrification, removal of phosphorus, and xenobiotic degradation from waste. [7] Various human activities, such as fertilizer production and chemical plant usage, release significant amounts of ammonium ions into rivers and oceans. [8] Ammonium buildup in aquatic environments is potentially dangerous because high ammonium content can lead to eutrophication. [8] Biological wastewater treatment systems, as well as other biological ammonium-removing methods, depend on the metabolism of various Bacteria including members of the Nitrosomonadales of the Betaproteobacteria that perform nitrification to remove excessive ammonia from wastewater. The ammonia is first oxidized into nitrite, further oxidized to nitrate. A variety of other organisms then reduces nitrate into molecular nitrogen gas (denitrification), which leaves the ecosystem and is carried into the atmosphere. [9]
Pseudomonadota is a major phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. The renaming of several prokaryote phyla in 2021, including Pseudomonadota, remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earlier name Proteobacteria, of long standing in the literature. The phylum Proteobacteria includes a wide variety of pathogenic genera, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Vibrio, Yersinia, Legionella, and many others. Others are free-living (non-parasitic) and include many of the bacteria responsible for nitrogen fixation.
Denitrification is a microbially facilitated process where nitrate (NO3−) is reduced and ultimately produces molecular nitrogen (N2) through a series of intermediate gaseous nitrogen oxide products. Facultative anaerobic bacteria perform denitrification as a type of respiration that reduces oxidized forms of nitrogen in response to the oxidation of an electron donor such as organic matter. The preferred nitrogen electron acceptors in order of most to least thermodynamically favorable include nitrate (NO3−), nitrite (NO2−), nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O) finally resulting in the production of dinitrogen (N2) completing the nitrogen cycle. Denitrifying microbes require a very low oxygen concentration of less than 10%, as well as organic C for energy. Since denitrification can remove NO3−, reducing its leaching to groundwater, it can be strategically used to treat sewage or animal residues of high nitrogen content. Denitrification can leak N2O, which is an ozone-depleting substance and a greenhouse gas that can have a considerable influence on global warming.
The Nitrosomonadales are an order of the class Betaproteobacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota. Like all members of their class, they are Gram-negative.
The Burkholderiales are an order of Betaproteobacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota. Like all Pseudomonadota, they are Gram-negative. They include several pathogenic bacteria, including species of Burkholderia, Bordetella, and Ralstonia. They also include Oxalobacter and related genera, which are unusual in using oxalic acid as their source of carbon. Other well-studied genera include Alcaligenes, Cupriavidus, Achromobacter, Comamonas, Delftia, Massilia, Duganella, Janthinobacterium, Polynucleobacter, non-pathogenic Paraburkholderia, Caballeronia, Polaromonas, Thiomonas, Collimonas, Hydrogenophaga, Sphaerotilus, Variovorax, Acidovorax, Rubrivivax and Rhodoferax, and Herbaspirillum.
The Rhodocyclaceae are a family of gram-negative bacteria. They are given their own order in the beta subgroup of Pseudomonadota, and include many genera previously assigned to the family Pseudomonadaceae.
The Rhodocyclales are an order of the class Betaproteobacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota ("Proteobacteria"). Following a major reclassification of the class in 2017, the previously monofamilial order was split into three families:
The Hydrogenophilaceae are a family of the class Hydrogenophilalia in the phylum Pseudomonadota ("Proteobacteria"), with two genera – Hydrogenophilus and Tepidiphilus. Like all Pseudomonadota, they are Gram-negative. All known species are thermophilic, growing around 50 °C, and use molecular hydrogen or organic molecules as their source of electrons to support growth; some species are autotrophs.
Thiobacillus is a genus of Gram-negative Betaproteobacteria. Thiobacillus thioparus is the type species of the genus, and the type strain thereof is the StarkeyT strain, isolated by Robert Starkey in the 1930s from a field at Rutgers University in the United States of America. While over 30 "species" have been named in this genus since it was defined by Martinus Beijerinck in 1904,, most names were never validly or effectively published. The remainder were either reclassified into Paracoccus, Starkeya ; Sulfuriferula, Annwoodia, Thiomonas ; Halothiobacillus, Guyparkeria, or Thermithiobacillus or Acidithiobacillus. The very loosely defined "species" Thiobacillus trautweinii was where sulfur oxidising heterotrophs and chemolithoheterotrophs were assigned in the 1910-1960s era, most of which were probably Pseudomonas species. Many species named in this genus were never deposited in service collections and have been lost.
The Acidithiobacillales are an order of bacteria within the class Acidithiobacillia and comprises the genera Acidithiobacillus and Thermithiobacillus. Originally, both were included in the genus Thiobacillus, but they are not related to the type species, which belongs to the Betaproteobacteria.
Thauera is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria in the family Zoogloeaceae of the order Rhodocyclales of the Betaproteobacteria. The genus is named for the German microbiologist Rudolf Thauer. Most species of this genus are motile by flagella and are mostly rod-shaped. The species occur in wet soil and polluted freshwater.
Spirillaceae is a family in the order Nitrosomonadales in the class Betaproteobacteria of the bacteria.
Dechloromonas is a genus in the phylum Pseudomonadota (Bacteria).
Azoarcus is a genus of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Species in this genus are usually found in contaminated water, as they are involved in the degradation of some contaminants, commonly inhabiting soil. These bacteria have also been found growing in the endophytic compartment of some rice species and other grasses. The genus is within the family Zoogloeaceae in the Rhodocyclales of the Betaproteobacteria.
Azonexus is a genus of gram-negative, non-spore-forming, highly motile bacteria that is the type genus of the family Azonexaceae which is in the order Rhodocyclales of the class Betaproteobacteria.
Azovibrio is a genus of bacteria from the order Rhodocyclales which belongs to the class of Betaproteobacteria, but the family to which it belongs is uncertain since it falls in between the Zoogloeaceae and the Rhodocyclaceae. Up to now there is only on species known.
Ferribacterium is a genus of bacteria from the family of Rhodocyclaceae which belongs to the class of Betaproteobacteria. Up to now there is only one species of this genus known.
Zoogloea, also known as zoöglœa, is a genus of gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria from the family of Zoogloeaceae in the Rhodocyclales of the class Betaproteobacteria.
Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, formerly known as Thiobacillus thiooxidans until its reclassification into the newly designated genus Acidithiobacillus of the Acidithiobacillia subclass of Pseudomonadota, is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that uses sulfur as its primary energy source. It is mesophilic, with a temperature optimum of 28 °C. This bacterium is commonly found in soil, sewer pipes, and cave biofilms called snottites. A. thiooxidans is used in the mining technique known as bioleaching, where metals are extracted from their ores through the action of microbes.
The genus Annwoodia was named in 2017 to circumscribe an organism previously described as a member of the genus Thiobacillus, Thiobacillus aquaesulis - the type and only species is Annwoodia aquaesulis, which was isolated from the geothermal waters of the Roman Baths in the city of Bath in the United Kingdom by Ann P. Wood and Donovan P. Kelly of the University of Warwick - the genus was subsequently named to honour Wood's contribution to microbiology. The genus falls within the family Thiobacillaceae along with Thiobacillus and Sulfuritortus, both of which comprise autotrophic organisms dependent on thiosulfate, other sulfur oxyanions and sulfide as electron donors for chemolithoheterotrophic growth. Whilst Annwoodia spp. and Sulfuritortus spp. are thermophilic, Thiobacillus spp. are mesophilic.
Ann Patricia Wood is a retired British biochemist and bacteriologist who specialized in the ecology, taxonomy and physiology of sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic bacteria and how methylotrophic bacteria play a role in the degradation of odour causing compounds in the human mouth, vagina and skin. The bacterial genus Annwoodia was named to honor her contributions to microbial research in 2017.