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Free-Living Saccharolytic Spirochetes: The Genus Spirochaeta

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The Prokaryotes

Introduction

The genus Spirochaeta includes anaerobic and facultatively anaerobic spirochetes that are indigenous to aquatic environments such as the mud and water of ponds and marshes. These spirochetes occur in nature as free-living forms; that is, their existence does not depend on physical associations with other organisms (Canale-Parola, 1984a).

Spirochaeta cells are helically shaped (Fig. 1–12) and possess the typical ultrastructural features of spirochetes (Canale-Parola, 1984b; Fig. 13). The outermost structure of the cells is an “outer membrane,” or “outer sheath,” which encloses the coiled cell body (“protoplasmic cylinder”) consisting of the cytoplasm, the nuclear region, and the peptidoglycan-cytoplasmic membrane complex (Fig. 13). Organelles ultrastructurally similar to bacterial flagella are located in the area between the outer membrane and the protoplasmic cylinder (Fig. 13). These organelles are essential components of the motility apparatus of spirochetes (Paster and...

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Authors
  1. Susan Leschine
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  2. Bruce J. Paster
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  3. Ercole Canale-Parola
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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Leschine, S., Paster, B.J., Canale-Parola, E. (2006). Free-Living Saccharolytic Spirochetes: The Genus Spirochaeta . In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30747-8_7

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