Griffith's experiment, performed by Frederick Griffith and reported in 1928, was the first experiment suggesting that bacteria are capable of transferring genetic information through a process known as transformation. Griffith's findings were followed by research in the late 1930s and early 40s that isolated DNA as the material that communicated this genetic information.
Yersinia pestis is a gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillus bacterium without spores that is related to both Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, the pathogen from which Y. pestis evolved and responsible for the Far East scarlet-like fever. It is a facultative anaerobic organism that can infect humans via the Oriental rat flea. It causes the disease plague, which caused the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic in recorded history. Plague takes three main forms: pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic. Yersinia pestis is a parasite of its host, the rat flea, which is also a parasite of rats, hence Y. pestis is a hyperparasite.
Oswald Theodore Avery Jr. was a Canadian-American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller Hospital in New York City. Avery was one of the first molecular biologists and a pioneer in immunochemistry, but he is best known for the experiment that isolated DNA as the material of which genes and chromosomes are made.
Thiomargarita namibiensis is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, coccoid bacterium found in the ocean sediments of the continental shelf of Namibia. It is the second largest bacterium ever discovered, 0.1–0.3 mm (100–300 μm) in diameter on average, but sometimes attaining 0.75 mm (750 μm). Cells of Thiomargarita namibiensis are large enough to be visible to the naked eye. The previously largest known bacterium was Epulopiscium fishelsoni, at 0.5mm long. Thiomargarita magnifica, described in 2022, is larger. Thiomargarita namibiensis have large vacuoles for their chemolithotrophic metabolism. The vacuoles contribute to their gigantism, allowing them to store nutrients for asexual reproduction of their complex genome.
Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive, bacillus (rod-shaped), anaerobic, spore-forming pathogenic bacterium of the genus Clostridium. C. perfringens is ever-present in nature and can be found as a normal component of decaying vegetation, marine sediment, the intestinal tract of humans and other vertebrates, insects, and soil. It has the shortest reported generation time of any organism at 6.3 minutes in thioglycolate medium.
Vibrio vulnificus is a species of Gram-negative, motile, curved rod-shaped (vibrio), pathogenic bacteria of the genus Vibrio. Present in marine environments such as estuaries, brackish ponds, or coastal areas, V. vulnificus is related to V. cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. At least one strain of V. vulnificus is bioluminescent. Increasing seasonal ocean temperatures and low-salt marine environments like estuaries favor a greater concentration of Vibrio within filter-feeding shellfish; V. vulnificus infections in the Eastern United States have increased eightfold from 1988–2018.
Citrus canker is a disease affecting Citrus species caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas. Infection causes lesions on the leaves, stems, and fruit of citrus trees, including lime, oranges, and grapefruit. While not harmful to humans, canker significantly affects the vitality of citrus trees, causing leaves and fruit to drop prematurely; a fruit infected with canker is safe to eat, but too unsightly to be sold. Citrus canker is mainly a leaf-spotting and rind-blemishing disease, but when conditions are highly favorable, it can cause defoliation, shoot dieback, and fruit drop.
Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobe, nonmotile bacterium that is often found in association with localized aggressive periodontitis, a severe infection of the periodontium. It is also suspected to be involved in chronic periodontitis. Less frequently, A. actinomycetemcomitans is associated with nonoral infections such as endocarditis. Its role in aggressive periodontitis was first discovered by Danish-born periodontist Jørgen Slots, a professor of dentistry and microbiology at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry.
Streptomyces griseus is a species of bacteria in the genus Streptomyces commonly found in soil. A few strains have been also reported from deep-sea sediments. It is a Gram-positive bacterium with high GC content. Along with most other streptomycetes, S. griseus strains are well known producers of antibiotics and other such commercially significant secondary metabolites. These strains are known to be producers of 32 different structural types of bioactive compounds. Streptomycin, the first antibiotic ever reported from a bacterium, comes from strains of S. griseus. Recently, the whole genome sequence of one of its strains had been completed.
Funk Brothers Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co., 333 U.S. 127 (1948), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court held that a facially trivial implementation of a natural principle or phenomenon of nature is not eligible for a patent.
GFAJ-1 is a strain of rod-shaped bacteria in the family Halomonadaceae. It is an extremophile that was isolated from the hypersaline and alkaline Mono Lake in eastern California by geobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA research fellow in residence at the US Geological Survey. In a 2010 Science journal publication, the authors claimed that the microbe, when starved of phosphorus, is capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of its phosphorus to sustain its growth. Immediately after publication, other microbiologists and biochemists expressed doubt about this claim, which was robustly criticized in the scientific community. Subsequent independent studies published in 2012 found no detectable arsenate in the DNA of GFAJ-1, refuted the claim, and demonstrated that GFAJ-1 is simply an arsenate-resistant, phosphate-dependent organism.
Halomonas titanicae is a gram-negative, halophilic species of bacteria which was isolated in 2010 from rusticles recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic. It has been estimated by Henrietta Mann, one of the researchers that first isolated it, that the action of microbes like Halomonas titanicae may bring about the total deterioration of the Titanic by 2030. While the bacteria have been identified as a potential danger to oil rigs and other man-made objects in the deep sea, they also have the potential to be used in bioremediation to accelerate the decomposition of shipwrecks littering the ocean floor.
Rhodopila globiformis is a species of bacteria, formerly known as Rhodopseudomonas globiformis. It is a motile, spherical organism. Cells can grow between 1.6 and 1.8 μm in diameter. The photopigments consist of bacteriochlorophyll aP and aliphatic methoxylated ketocarotenoids. The organism grows under anaerobic conditions in the light or under microaerophilic conditions in the dark. Biotin, p-aminobenzoic acid and a source of reduced sulfur are required as growth factors in order to cultivate this bacteria. This bacteria possesses a high potential cytochrome c2.
Exiguobacterium is a genus of bacilli and a member of the low GC phyla of Bacillota. Collins et al. first described the genus Exiguobacterium with the characterization of E. aurantiacum strain DSM6208T from an alkaline potato processing plant. It has been found in areas covering a wide range of temperatures (-12 °C—55 °C) including glaciers in Greenland and hot springs in Yellowstone, and has been isolated from ancient permafrost in Siberia. This ability to survive in varying temperature extremes makes them an important area of study. Some strains in addition to dynamic thermal adaption are also halotolerant, can grow within a wide range of pH values (5-11), tolerate high levels of UV radiation, and heavy metal stress.
Psychrobacter arcticus is a Gram-negative, nonmotile species of bacteria first isolated from Siberian permafrost. Its type strain is 273-4T.
Exiguobacterium undrae is a bacterium. The DR14 strain of these bacteria has been found to eat polystyrene plastic. It was discovered in India, in wetlands by researchers in Shiv Nadar University. It was discovered alongside Exiguobacterium sibiricum strain DR11.
Corbomycin is a member of the glycopeptide family of antibiotics that are produced by soil bacteria.
Exiguobacterium chiriqhucha is a bacterium from the genus of Exiguobacterium.
Exiguobacterium undae is a species of Bacilli. Its discovery was published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. This species has the ability to metabolize arabinose, cellulose, fructose, and glucose. It may undergo fermentation by utilizing D-glucose, D-mannitol, D-ribose, and glycogen. E. undae is motile and it contains peritrichous flagella.
A plastivore is an organism capable of degrading and metabolising plastic. While plastic is normally thought of as non-biodegradable, a variety of bacteria, fungi and insects have been found to degrade it.
