Sorangium cellulosum | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Bacteria |
Phylum: | Myxococcota |
Class: | Myxococcia |
Order: | Myxococcales |
Family: | Polyangiaceae |
Genus: | Sorangium |
Species: | S. cellulosum |
Binomial name | |
Sorangium cellulosum (ex Jahn 1924) Reichenbach 2007 | |
Sorangium cellulosum is a soil-dwelling Gram-negative bacterium of the group myxobacteria. [1] It is motile and shows gliding motility. Under stressful conditions this motility, as in other myxobacteria, the cells congregate to form fruiting bodies and differentiate into myxospores. These congregating cells make isolation of pure culture and colony counts on agar medium difficult as the bacterium spread and colonies merge. [2] It has an unusually-large genome of 13,033,779 base pairs, making it the largest bacterial genome sequenced to date by roughly 4 Mb. [3]
S. cellulosum is found in soils, animal feces, and tree bark. [4] The bacterium is a saprophyte deriving its nutrition from cellulose aerobically. It is a prolific producer of secondary fungicides and bactericides that reduce competition in soil environments. [5] In lab samples, S. cellulosum grows on agar medium only when certain cell densities are plated. Quorum-sensing allows Sorangium to grow in communities sufficiently large to metabolize cellulose. [2]
Sorangium produces 50% of all known metabolites produced by myxobacteria. [3] These include compounds that are antifungal, antibacterial, antibiotic resistant, or can even disable mammalian cells. These many compounds have sparked intense mining of its extensive genome in exploration of possible industrial and medical applications. Some of these secondary compounds include:
Industrial fermentation and genetic manipulation of S. cellulosum is challenging. Plasmids have been found to not function in S. cellulosum cells. Reproducible genetic alterations must be made directly into the single circular chromosome. [ failed verification ] [9]
Metabolites secreted by Sorangium cellulosum known as epothilones have been noted to have antineoplastic activity. [10] This has led to the development of analogs which mimic its activity. One such analog, known as ixabepilone is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved chemotherapy agent for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. [11]
The myxobacteria are a group of bacteria that predominantly live in the soil and feed on insoluble organic substances. The myxobacteria have very large genomes relative to other bacteria, e.g. 9–10 million nucleotides except for Anaeromyxobacter and Vulgatibacter. One species of myxobacteria, Minicystis rosea, has the largest known bacterial genome with over 16 million nucleotides. The second largest is another myxobacteria Sorangium cellulosum.
Agrobacterium radiobacter is the causal agent of crown gall disease in over 140 species of eudicots. It is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative soil bacterium. Symptoms are caused by the insertion of a small segment of DNA, from a plasmid into the plant cell, which is incorporated at a semi-random location into the plant genome. Plant genomes can be engineered by use of Agrobacterium for the delivery of sequences hosted in T-DNA binary vectors.
Agrobacterium is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria established by H. J. Conn that uses horizontal gene transfer to cause tumors in plants. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the most commonly studied species in this genus. Agrobacterium is well known for its ability to transfer DNA between itself and plants, and for this reason it has become an important tool for genetic engineering.
Streptomyces is the largest genus of Actinomycetota and the type genus of the family Streptomycetaceae. Over 500 species of Streptomyces bacteria have been described. As with the other Actinomycetota, streptomycetes are gram-positive, and have genomes with high GC content. Found predominantly in soil and decaying vegetation, most streptomycetes produce spores, and are noted for their distinct "earthy" odor that results from production of a volatile metabolite, geosmin.
Halobacterium is a genus in the family Halobacteriaceae.
Myxococcus xanthus is a gram-negative, rod-shaped species of myxobacteria that exhibits various forms of self-organizing behavior in response to environmental cues. Under normal conditions with abundant food, it exists as a predatory, saprophytic single-species biofilm called a swarm. Under starvation conditions, it undergoes a multicellular development cycle.
Epothilones are a class of potential cancer drugs. Like taxanes, they prevent cancer cells from dividing by interfering with tubulin, but in early trials, epothilones have better efficacy and milder adverse effects than taxanes.
Bacteria are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, and the deep biosphere of Earth's crust. Bacteria are vital in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of dead bodies; bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In the biological communities surrounding hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, extremophile bacteria provide the nutrients needed to sustain life by converting dissolved compounds, such as hydrogen sulphide and methane, to energy. Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Most bacteria have not been characterised and there are many species that cannot be grown in the laboratory. The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology.
Ixabepilone is a pharmaceutical drug developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb as a chemotherapeutic medication for cancer.
Plant transformation vectors are plasmids that have been specifically designed to facilitate the generation of transgenic plants. The most commonly used plant transformation vectors are termed binary vectors because of their ability to replicate in both E. coli, a common lab bacterium and Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a bacterium used to insert the recombinant (customized) DNA into plants. Plant Transformation vectors contain three key elements;
Janthinobacterium lividum is an aerobic, Gram-negative, soil-dwelling bacterium that has a distinctive dark-violet color, due to a compound called violacein, which is produced when glycerol is metabolized as a carbon source. Violacein has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. Its antifungal properties are of particular interest, since J. lividum is found on the skin of certain amphibians, including the red-backed salamander, where it prevents infection by the devastating chytrid fungus.
Cytophaga is a genus of Gram-negative, gliding, rod-shaped bacteria. This bacterium is commonly found in soil, rapidly digests crystalline cellulose C. hutchinsonii is able to use its gliding motility to move quickly over surfaces. Although the mechanism for this is not known, there is a belief that the flagellum is not used
Stigmatella aurantiaca is a member of myxobacteria, a group of gram-negative bacteria with a complex developmental life cycle.
Latilactobacillus sakei is the type species of the genus Latilactobacillus that was previously classified in the genus Lactobacillus. It is homofermentative; hexoses are metabolized via glycolysis to lactic acid as main metabolite; pentoses are fermented via the Phosphoketolase pathway to lactic and acetic acids.
Streptomyces isolates have yielded the majority of human, animal, and agricultural antibiotics, as well as a number of fundamental chemotherapy medicines. Streptomyces is the largest antibiotic-producing genus of Actinomycetota, producing chemotherapy, antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic drugs, and immunosuppressants. Streptomyces isolates are typically initiated with the aerial hyphal formation from the mycelium.
Lactocillin is a thiopeptide antibiotic which is encoded for and produced by biosynthetic genes clusters in the bacteria Lactobacillus gasseri. Lactocillin was discovered and purified in 2014. Lactobacillus gasseri is one of the four Lactobacillus bacteria found to be most common in the human vaginal microbiome. Due to increasing levels of pathogenic resistance to known antibiotics, novel antibiotics are increasingly valuable. Lactocillin could function as a new antibiotic that could help people fight off infections that are resistant to many other antibiotics.
Pneumocandin B0, also known as pneumocandin B0, pneumocandin B(0), and hydroxy echinocandin, is an organic chemical compound with the formula C50H80N8O17, produced by the fungus Glarea lozoyensis.
Gephyronic acid is a polyketide that exists as an equilibrating mixture of structural isomers. In nature, gephyronic acid is produced by slow growing myxobacterium: Archangium gephyra strain Ar3895 and Cystobacter violaceus strain Cb vi76. It is the first antibiotic in myxobacteria that was reported to specifically inhibit eukaryotic protein synthesis.
Enhygromyxa salina is a species of marine myxobacteria. Like other members of this order, E. salina is a rod-shaped Gram-negative bacterium that can move by gliding and can form aggregates of cells called fruiting bodies. E. salina is slightly halophilic (salt-tolerant) and can grow at lower temperatures than other marine myxobacteria. Several novel secondary metabolites have been identified in the species, including unusual sterols. The species was first described in 2003, based on six strains isolated from samples collected from the coastlines of Japan.
Chlorotonil A is a polyketide natural product produced by the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum So ce1525. It displays antimalarial activity in an animal model, and has in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activity. The activity of chlorotonil A has been attributed to the gem-dichloro-1,3-dione moiety, which is a unique functionality in polyketides. In addition to its unique halogenation, the structure of chlorotonil A has also garnered interest due to its similarity to anthracimycin, a polyketide natural product with antibiotic activity against Gram-positive bacteria.