Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 16 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5413, pp. 493 - 495
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5413.493
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Dense Populations of a Giant Sulfur Bacterium in Namibian Shelf Sediments

H. N. Schulz, 1* T. Brinkhoff, 2 T. G. Ferdelman, 1 M. Hernández Mariné, 3 A. Teske, 4 B. B. Jørgensen 1

A previously unknown giant sulfur bacterium is abundant in sediments underlying the oxygen minimum zone of the Benguela Current upwelling system. The bacterium has a spherical cell that exceeds by up to 100-fold the biovolume of the largest known prokaryotes. On the basis of 16S ribosomal DNA sequence data, these bacteria are closely related to the marine filamentous sulfur bacteria Thioploca, abundant in the upwelling area off Chile and Peru. Similar to Thioploca, the giant bacteria oxidize sulfide with nitrate that is accumulated to <=800 millimolar in a central vacuole.

1 Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstrasse, D-28359 Bremen, Germany.
2 Institute for the Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Post Office Box 2503, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany.
3 Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
4 Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hschulz{at}mpi-bremen.de

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Modern Concept of the Procaryote.
W. B. Whitman (2009)
J. Bacteriol. 191, 2000-2005
   Full Text »    PDF »
Tubular Compression Fossils from the Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia.
P. A. Cohen, A. Bradley, A. H. Knoll, J. P. Grotzinger, S. Jensen, J. Abelson, K. Hand, G. Love, J. Metz, N. McLoughlin, et al. (2009)
Journal of Paleontology 83, 110-122
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Big discovery for biogenic magnetite.
P. C. Lippert (2008)
PNAS 105, 17595-17596
   Full Text »    PDF »
Thiofaba tepidiphila gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel obligately chemolithoautotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing bacterium of the Gammaproteobacteria isolated from a hot spring.
K. Mori and K.-i. Suzuki (2008)
Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 58, 1885-1891
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Extreme polyploidy in a large bacterium.
J. E. Mendell, K. D. Clements, J. H. Choat, and E. R. Angert (2008)
PNAS 105, 6730-6734
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Silicified Horodyskia and Palaeopascichnus from upper Ediacaran cherts in South China: tentative phylogenetic interpretation and implications for evolutionary stasis.
L. DONG, S. XIAO, B. SHEN, and C. ZHOU (2008)
Journal of the Geological Society 165, 367-378
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Physiological Adaptation of a Nitrate-Storing Beggiatoa sp. to Diel Cycling in a Phototrophic Hypersaline Mat.
S. Hinck, T. R. Neu, G. Lavik, M. Mussmann, D. de Beer, and H. M. Jonkers (2007)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 73, 7013-7022
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Growth Yields in Bacterial Denitrification and Nitrate Ammonification.
T. O. Strohm, B. Griffin, W. G. Zumft, and B. Schink (2007)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 73, 1420-1424
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Selective Value of Bacterial Shape.
K. D. Young (2006)
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 70, 660-703
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Sulfurivirga caldicuralii gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel microaerobic, thermophilic, thiosulfate-oxidizing chemolithoautotroph, isolated from a shallow marine hydrothermal system occurring in a coral reef, Japan..
K. Takai, M. Miyazaki, T. Nunoura, H. Hirayama, H. Oida, Y. Furushima, H. Yamamoto, and K. Horikoshi (2006)
Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 56, 1921-1929
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Membrane-bound Multienzyme, Hydrogen-oxidizing, and Sulfur-reducing Complex from the Hyperthermophilic Bacterium Aquifex aeolicus.
M. Guiral, P. Tron, C. Aubert, A. Gloter, C. Iobbi-Nivol, and M.-T. Giudici-Orticoni (2005)
J. Biol. Chem. 280, 42004-42015
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Impact of Bacterial NO3- Transport on Sediment Biogeochemistry.
M. Sayama, N. Risgaard-Petersen, L. P. Nielsen, H. Fossing, and P. B. Christensen (2005)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 71, 7575-7577
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ingress of India Ink Into the Anterior Chamber Through Sutureless Clear Corneal Cataract Wounds.
M. Taban, M. A. Sarayba, T. S. Ignacio, A. Behrens, and P. J. McDonnell (2005)
Arch Ophthalmol 123, 643-648
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Lipid Biomarkers and Carbon Isotope Signatures of a Microbial (Beggiatoa) Mat Associated with Gas Hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico.
C. L. Zhang, Z. Huang, J. Cantu, R. D. Pancost, R. L. Brigmon, T. W. Lyons, and R. Sassen (2005)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 71, 2106-2112
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Large Sulfur Bacteria and the Formation of Phosphorite.
H. N. Schulz and H. D. Schulz (2005)
Science 307, 416-418
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Novel, Attached, Sulfur-Oxidizing Bacteria at Shallow Hydrothermal Vents Possess Vacuoles Not Involved in Respiratory Nitrate Accumulation.
K. M. Kalanetra, S. L. Huston, and D. C. Nelson (2004)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 70, 7487-7496
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Filamentous "Epsilonproteobacteria" Dominate Microbial Mats from Sulfidic Cave Springs.
A. S. Engel, N. Lee, M. L. Porter, L. A. Stern, P. C. Bennett, and M. Wagner (2003)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 69, 5503-5511
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Modeling Microbial Consortiums as Distributed Metabolic Networks.
J. J. Vallino (2003)
Biol. Bull. 204, 174-179
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Morphological and Phylogenetic Characterizations of Freshwater Thioploca Species from Lake Biwa, Japan, and Lake Constance, Germany.
H. Kojima, A. Teske, and M. Fukui (2003)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 69, 390-398
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Conspicuous Veils Formed by Vibrioid Bacteria on Sulfidic Marine Sediment.
R. Thar and M. Kuhl (2002)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 68, 6310-6320
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Uptake Rates of Oxygen and Sulfide Measured with Individual Thiomargarita namibiensis Cells by Using Microelectrodes.
H. N. Schulz and D. de Beer (2002)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 68, 5746-5749
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Geomicrobiology: How Molecular-Scale Interactions Underpin Biogeochemical Systems.
D. K. Newman and J. F. Banfield (2002)
Science 296, 1071-1077
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Natural Communities of Novel Archaea and Bacteria with a String-of-Pearls-Like Morphology: Molecular Analysis of the Bacterial Partners.
C. Moissl, C. Rudolph, and R. Huber (2002)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 68, 933-937
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Quantitative speciation of sulfur in bacterial sulfur globules: X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals at least three different species of sulfur.
A. Prange, R. Chauvistre, H. Modrow, J. Hormes, H. G. Truper, and C. Dahl (2002)
Microbiology 148, 267-276
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Presence of Nitrate-Accumulating Sulfur Bacteria and Their Influence on Nitrogen Cycling in a Shallow Coastal Marine Sediment.
M. Sayama (2001)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 67, 3481-3487
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)