Gammaproteobacteria | |
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Vibrio cholerae | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Bacteria |
Phylum: | Pseudomonadota |
Class: | Gammaproteobacteria Garrity et al. 2005 |
Orders | |
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Synonyms | |
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Gammaproteobacteria is a class of bacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota (synonym Proteobacteria). It contains about 250 genera, which makes it the most genus-rich taxon of the Prokaryotes. [1] Several medically, ecologically, and scientifically important groups of bacteria belong to this class. All members of this class are Gram-negative. It is the most phylogenetically and physiologically diverse class of the Pseudomonadota. [2]
Members of Gammaproteobacteria live in several terrestrial and marine environments, in which they play various important roles, including in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents. They can have different shapes, rods, curved rods, cocci, spirilla, and filaments, [3] and include free living bacteria, biofilm formers, commensals and symbionts; [4] some also have the distinctive trait of being bioluminescent. [5] Diverse metabolisms are found in Gammaproteobacteria; there are both aerobic and anaerobic (obligate or facultative) species, chemolithoautotrophics, chemoorganotrophics, photoautotrophs and heterotrophs. [6]
The element "gamma" (third letter of the Greek alphabet) indicates that this is Class III in Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology (Vol. II, page 1). Proteus refers to the Greek sea god who could change his shape. Bacteria (Greek βακτήριον; "rod" "little stick"), in terms of etymological history, refers to Bacillus (rod-shaped bacteria), but in this case is "useful in the interim while the phylogenetic data are being integrated into formal bacterial taxonomy." [7]
Currently, many different classifications are based on different approaches, such as the National Center for Biotechnology Information, based on genomic, List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature, ARB-Silva Database [8] based on ribosomal RNA, or a multiprotein approach. It is still very difficult to resolve the phylogeny of this bacterial class. [4]
The following molecular phylogeny of Gammaproteobacteria is based on a set of 356 protein families.
Phylogeny of Gammaproteobacteria | ||||||
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Phylogeny of Gammaproteobacteria after [4] Not all orders are monophyletic, consequently families or genera are shown for the Pseudomonadales, Oceanospirillales, and Alteromonadales. In the case of singleton orders, the genus is shown. (In bacterial taxonomy, orders have the suffix -ales, while families have -aceae.) |
A number of genera in Gammaproteobacteria have not yet been assigned to an order or family. These include Alkalimonas , Gallaecimonas , Ignatzschineria , Litorivivens , Marinicella , Plasticicumulans , Pseudohongiella , Sedimenticola , Thiohalobacter , Thiohalorhabdus , Thiolapillus , and Wohlfahrtiimonas . [9]
Gammaproteobacteria, especially the orders Alteromonadales and Vibrionales, are fundamental in marine and coastal ecosystems because they are the major groups involved in nutrient cycling. [10] Despite their fame as pathogens, they find application in a huge number of fields, such as bioremediation and biosynthesis.
Gammaproteobacteria can be used as a microbial fuel cell (MFC) [11] element that applies their ability to dissimilate various metals. [12] The produced energy could be collected as one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable energy production systems. [13] They are also used as biological methane filters. [14]
Phototrophic purple sulfur bacteria are used in wastewater treatment processes. [15] The ability of some Gammaproteobacteria (e.g. the genus Alcanivorax [16] ) to bioremediate oil is increasingly important for degrading crude oil after oil spills. [17] Some species from the family Chromatiaceae are notable because they may be involved in the production of vitamin B12. [18] Some Gammaproteobacteria are used to synthesize poly-b-hydroxyalkanoate (PHA), [19] which is a polymer that is used in the production of biodegradable plastics. Many Gammaproteobacteria species are able to generate secondary metabolites with antibacterial properties. [20]
Gammaproteobacteria are widely distributed and abundant in various ecosystems such as soil, freshwater lakes and rivers, oceans and salt lakes. For example, they constitute about 6–20% (average of 14%) of bacterioplankton in different oceans, [21] and they are distributed world-wide in both deep-sea and coastal sediments. [22] In seawater, bacterial community composition could be shaped by environmental parameters such as phosphorus availability, total organic carbon, salinity, and pH. [23] In soil, higher pH is correlated with higher relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria , Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria. [24] The relative abundance of Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria is also positively correlated to the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, which is a key environmental parameter shaping bacterial community composition. [25] Gammaproteobacteria are also key players in the dark carbon fixation in coastal sediments, which are the largest carbon sink on Earth, and the majority of these bacteria have not been cultured yet. [26] The deep-sea hydrothermal system is one of the most extreme environments on Earth. Almost all vent-endemic animals are strongly associated with the primary production of the endo- and/or episymbiotic chemoautotrophic microorganisms. [27] Analyses of both the symbiotic and free-living microbial communities in the various deep-sea hydrothermal environments have revealed a predominance in biomass of members of the Gammaproteobacteria. [28]
Gammaproteobacteria have a wide diversity, metabolic versatility, and functional redundancy in the hydrothermal sediments, and they are responsible for the important organic carbon turnover and nitrogen and sulfur cycling processes. [29] Anoxic hydrothermal fluids contain several reduced compounds such as H2, CH4, and reduced metal ions in addition to H2S. Chemoautotrophs that oxidize hydrogen sulfide and reduce oxygen potentially sustain the primary production in these unique ecosystems. [30] In the last decades, it has been found that orders belonging to Gammaproteobacteria, like Pseudomonas, Moraxella , are able to degrade different types of plastics and these microbes might have a key role in plastic biodegradation. [31]
Gammaproteobacteria are metabolically diverse, employing a variety of electron donors for respiration and biosynthesis.
Some groups are nitrite-oxidizers [32] and ammonia oxidizers like the members of Nitrosococcus (with the exception of Nitrosococcus mobilis) and they are also obligate halophilic bacteria. [33]
Others are chemoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizers, like Thiotrichales , which are found in communities such as filamentous microbial biofilms in the Tor Caldara shallow-water gas vent in the Tyrrhenian Sea. [34] Moreover, thanks to 16S rRNA gene analysis, different sulfide oxidizers in the Gammaporteobacteria class have been detected, and the most important among them are Beggiatoa , Thioploca and Thiomargarita ; besides, large amounts of hydrogen sulfide are produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria in organic-rich coastal sediments. [35]
Marine Gammaproteobacteria include aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAP) that use bacteriochlorophyll to support the electron transport chain. They are believed to be a widespread and essential community in the oceans. [36]
Methanotrophs, such as the order Methylococcales, metabolize methane as sole energy source and are very important in the global carbon cycle. They are found in any site with methane sources, like gas reserves, soils, and wastewater. [37]
Purple sulfur bacteria are anoxygenic phototrophs that oxidize sulfur, [38] but potentially also other substrates like iron. [39] They are represented by members of two families, Chromatiaceae (e.g. Allochromatium , Chromatium , Thiodicyton ) and Ectothiorhodospiraceae (e.g. Ectothiorhodospira). [38] A few species within the genus Thermomonas (order Lysobacter) carry out the same metabolism. [40]
Numerous genera are obligate or generalist hydrocarbonclasts. The obligate hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (OHCB) use hydrocarbons almost exclusively as a carbon source; until now[ when? ] they have been found only in the marine environment. Examples include Alcanivorax , Oleiphilus , Oleispira , Thalassolitus, Cycloclasticus and Neptunomonas, and some species of Polycyclovorans , Algiphilus (order Xanthomonadales ), and Porticoccus hydrocarbonoclasticus (order Cellvibrionales ) that were isolated from phytoplankton. In contrast, aerobic “generalist” hydrocarbon degraders can use either hydrocarbons or nonhydrocarbon substrates as sources of carbon and energy; examples are found in the genera Acinetobacter , Colwellia , Glaciecola , Halomonas , Marinobacter , Marinomonas , Methylomonas , Pseudoalteromonas , Pseudomonas , Rhodanobacter , Shewanella , Stenotrophomonas , and Vibrio . [41]
The most widespread pathway for carbon fixation among Gammaproteobacteria is the Calvin–Benson–Bassham (CBB) cycle, although a minority may use the rTCA cycle. [42] Thioflavicoccus mobilis (a free living species) and "Candidatus Endoriftia persephone" (symbiont of the giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila ) may use the rTCA cycle in addition to the CBB cycle, and may express these two different pathways simultaneously. [43]
Symbiosis is a close and a long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms. A large number of Gammaproteobacteria are able to join in a close endosymbiosis with various species. Evidence for this can be found in a wide variety of ecological niches: on the ground, [44] [45] within plants, [46] or deep on the ocean floor. [47] On the land, it has been reported that Gammaproteobacteria species have been isolated from Robinia pseudoacacia [48] and other plants, [49] [50] while in the deep sea a sulfur-oxidizing gammaproteobacteria was found in a hydrothermal vent chimney; [51] by entering into symbiotic relationships in deep sea areas, sulfur-oxidizing chemolithotrophic microbes receive additional organic hydrocarbons in hydrothermal ecosystems. Some Gammaproteobacteria are symbiotic with geothermic ocean vent-downwelling animals, [52] and in addition, Gammaproteobacteria can have complex relationships with other species that live around thermal springs, [53] for example, with the shrimp Rimicaris exoculata living from hydrothermal vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Regarding the endosymbionts, most of them lack many of their family characteristics due to significant genome reduction. [54] [55]
Gammaproteobacteria include several medically and scientifically important groups of bacteria, such as the families Enterobacteriaceae , Vibrionaceae , and Pseudomonadaceae . A number of human pathogens belong to this class, including Yersinia pestis , Vibrio cholerae , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Escherichia coli , and some species of Salmonella . The class also contains plant pathogens such as Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri (citrus canker), Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (kiwifruit Psa outbreak), and Xylella fastidiosa. In the marine environment, several species from this class can infect different marine organisms, such as species in the genus Vibrio which affect fish, shrimp, corals or oysters, [56] and species of Salmonella which affect grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). [57] [58]
Pseudomonadota is a major phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. Currently, they are considered the predominant phylum within the realm of bacteria. They are naturally found as pathogenic and free-living (non-parasitic) genera. The phylum comprises six classes Acidithiobacillia, Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Hydrogenophilia, and Zetaproteobacteria. The Pseudomonadota are widely diverse, with differences in morphology, metabolic processes, relevance to humans, and ecological influence.
Riftia pachyptila, commonly known as the giant tube worm and less commonly known as the giant beardworm, is a marine invertebrate in the phylum Annelida related to tube worms commonly found in the intertidal and pelagic zones. R. pachyptila lives on the floor of the Pacific Ocean near hydrothermal vents. The vents provide a natural ambient temperature in their environment ranging from 2 to 30 °C, and this organism can tolerate extremely high hydrogen sulfide levels. These worms can reach a length of 3 m, and their tubular bodies have a diameter of 4 cm (1.6 in).
The important sulfur cycle is a biogeochemical cycle in which the sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and living systems. It is important in geology as it affects many minerals and in life because sulfur is an essential element (CHNOPS), being a constituent of many proteins and cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. The global sulfur cycle involves the transformations of sulfur species through different oxidation states, which play an important role in both geological and biological processes. Steps of the sulfur cycle are:
Sulfur-reducing bacteria are microorganisms able to reduce elemental sulfur (S0) to hydrogen sulfide (H2S). These microbes use inorganic sulfur compounds as electron acceptors to sustain several activities such as respiration, conserving energy and growth, in absence of oxygen. The final product of these processes, sulfide, has a considerable influence on the chemistry of the environment and, in addition, is used as electron donor for a large variety of microbial metabolisms. Several types of bacteria and many non-methanogenic archaea can reduce sulfur. Microbial sulfur reduction was already shown in early studies, which highlighted the first proof of S0 reduction in a vibrioid bacterium from mud, with sulfur as electron acceptor and H
2 as electron donor. The first pure cultured species of sulfur-reducing bacteria, Desulfuromonas acetoxidans, was discovered in 1976 and described by Pfennig Norbert and Biebel Hanno as an anaerobic sulfur-reducing and acetate-oxidizing bacterium, not able to reduce sulfate. Only few taxa are true sulfur-reducing bacteria, using sulfur reduction as the only or main catabolic reaction. Normally, they couple this reaction with the oxidation of acetate, succinate or other organic compounds. In general, sulfate-reducing bacteria are able to use both sulfate and elemental sulfur as electron acceptors. Thanks to its abundancy and thermodynamic stability, sulfate is the most studied electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration that involves sulfur compounds. Elemental sulfur, however, is very abundant and important, especially in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, hot springs and other extreme environments, making its isolation more difficult. Some bacteria – such as Proteus, Campylobacter, Pseudomonas and Salmonella – have the ability to reduce sulfur, but can also use oxygen and other terminal electron acceptors.
Iron-oxidizing bacteria are chemotrophic bacteria that derive energy by oxidizing dissolved iron. They are known to grow and proliferate in waters containing iron concentrations as low as 0.1 mg/L. However, at least 0.3 ppm of dissolved oxygen is needed to carry out the oxidation.
Beggiatoa is a genus of Gammaproteobacteria belonging to the order Thiotrichales, in the Pseudomonadota phylum. These bacteria form colorless filaments composed of cells that can be up to 200 μm in diameter, and are one of the largest prokaryotes on Earth. Beggiatoa are chemolithotrophic sulfur-oxidizers, using reduced sulfur species as an energy source. They live in sulfur-rich environments such as soil, both marine and freshwater, in the deep sea hydrothermal vents, and in polluted marine environments. In association with other sulfur bacteria, e.g. Thiothrix, they can form biofilms that are visible to the naked eye as mats of long white filaments; the white color is due to sulfur globules stored inside the cells.
Campylobacterota are a phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. Only a few genera have been characterized, including the curved to spirilloid Wolinella, Helicobacter, and Campylobacter. Until the 2021 revision of bacterial taxonomy by the ICSP, the entire phylum was classified within the Proteobacteria as the Epsilonproteobacteria.
A brine pool, sometimes called an underwater lake, deepwater or brine lake, is a volume of brine collected in a seafloor depression. These pools are dense bodies of water that have a salinity that is typically three to eight times greater than the surrounding ocean. Brine pools are commonly found below polar sea ice and in the deep ocean. This below-sea ice forms through a process called brine rejection. For deep-sea brine pools, salt is necessary to increase the salinity gradient. The salt can come from one of two processes: the dissolution of large salt deposits through salt tectonics or geothermally-heated brine issued from tectonic spreading centers.
Thiothrix is a genus of filamentous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, related to the genera Beggiatoa and Thioploca. They are usually Gram-negative and rod-shaped. They form ensheathed multicellular filaments that are attached at the base, and form gonidia at their free end. The apical gonidia have gliding motility. Rosettes of the filaments are not always formed but are typical. Sulfur is deposited in invaginations within the cell membrane.
Hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria are a group of facultative autotrophs that can use hydrogen as an electron donor. They can be divided into aerobes and anaerobes. The former use hydrogen as an electron donor and oxygen as an acceptor while the latter use sulphate or nitrogen dioxide as electron acceptors. Species of both types have been isolated from a variety of environments, including fresh waters, sediments, soils, activated sludge, hot springs, hydrothermal vents and percolating water.
Sulfur is metabolized by all organisms, from bacteria and archaea to plants and animals. Sulfur can have an oxidation state from -2 to +6 and is reduced or oxidized by a diverse range of organisms. The element is present in proteins, sulfate esters of polysaccharides, steroids, phenols, and sulfur-containing coenzymes.
Bacterial phyla constitute the major lineages of the domain Bacteria. While the exact definition of a bacterial phylum is debated, a popular definition is that a bacterial phylum is a monophyletic lineage of bacteria whose 16S rRNA genes share a pairwise sequence identity of ~75% or less with those of the members of other bacterial phyla.
The class Zetaproteobacteria is the sixth and most recently described class of the Pseudomonadota. Zetaproteobacteria can also refer to the group of organisms assigned to this class. The Zetaproteobacteria were originally represented by a single described species, Mariprofundus ferrooxydans, which is an iron-oxidizing neutrophilic chemolithoautotroph originally isolated from Kamaʻehuakanaloa Seamount in 1996 (post-eruption). Molecular cloning techniques focusing on the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene have also been used to identify a more diverse majority of the Zetaproteobacteria that have as yet been unculturable.
Olavius algarvensis is a species of gutless oligochaete worm in the family Tubificidae which depends on symbiotic bacteria for its nutrition.
Sulfurimonas is a bacterial genus within the class of Campylobacterota, known for reducing nitrate, oxidizing both sulfur and hydrogen, and containing Group IV hydrogenases. This genus consists of four species: Sulfurimonas autorophica, Sulfurimonas denitrificans, Sulfurimonas gotlandica, and Sulfurimonas paralvinellae. The genus' name is derived from "sulfur" in Latin and "monas" from Greek, together meaning a “sulfur-oxidizing rod”. The size of the bacteria varies between about 1.5-2.5 μm in length and 0.5-1.0 μm in width. Members of the genus Sulfurimonas are found in a variety of different environments which include deep sea-vents, marine sediments, and terrestrial habitats. Their ability to survive in extreme conditions is attributed to multiple copies of one enzyme. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that members of the genus Sulfurimonas have limited dispersal ability and its speciation was affected by geographical isolation rather than hydrothermal composition. Deep ocean currents affect the dispersal of Sulfurimonas spp., influencing its speciation. As shown in the MLSA report of deep-sea hydrothermal vents Campylobacterota, Sulfurimonas has a higher dispersal capability compared with deep sea hydrothermal vent thermophiles, indicating allopatric speciation.
Microbial oxidation of sulfur is the oxidation of sulfur by microorganisms to build their structural components. The oxidation of inorganic compounds is the strategy primarily used by chemolithotrophic microorganisms to obtain energy to survive, grow and reproduce. Some inorganic forms of reduced sulfur, mainly sulfide (H2S/HS−) and elemental sulfur (S0), can be oxidized by chemolithotrophic sulfur-oxidizing prokaryotes, usually coupled to the reduction of oxygen (O2) or nitrate (NO3−). Anaerobic sulfur oxidizers include photolithoautotrophs that obtain their energy from sunlight, hydrogen from sulfide, and carbon from carbon dioxide (CO2).
The hydrothermal vent microbial community includes all unicellular organisms that live and reproduce in a chemically distinct area around hydrothermal vents. These include organisms in the microbial mat, free floating cells, or bacteria in an endosymbiotic relationship with animals. Chemolithoautotrophic bacteria derive nutrients and energy from the geological activity at Hydrothermal vents to fix carbon into organic forms. Viruses are also a part of the hydrothermal vent microbial community and their influence on the microbial ecology in these ecosystems is a burgeoning field of research.
All animals on Earth form associations with microorganisms, including protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. In the ocean, animal–microbial relationships were historically explored in single host–symbiont systems. However, new explorations into the diversity of marine microorganisms associating with diverse marine animal hosts is moving the field into studies that address interactions between the animal host and a more multi-member microbiome. The potential for microbiomes to influence the health, physiology, behavior, and ecology of marine animals could alter current understandings of how marine animals adapt to change, and especially the growing climate-related and anthropogenic-induced changes already impacting the ocean environment.
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.
Sponge microbiomes are diverse communities of microorganisms in symbiotic association with marine sponges as their hosts. These microorganisms include bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses, among others. The sponges have the ability to filter seawater and recycle nutrients while providing a safe habitat to many microorganisms, which provide the sponge host with fixed nitrogen and carbon, and stimulates the immune system. Together, a sponge and its microbiome form a holobiont, with a single sponge often containing more than 40 bacterial phyla, making sponge microbial environments a diverse and dense community. Furthermore, individual holobionts work hand in hand with other near holobionts becoming a nested ecosystem, affecting the environment at multiple scales.