Abstract
I have come across a bacterium which has the form of a thin square sheet. In most bacteria such a shape would be precluded by the osmotically-generated internal hydrostatic pressure but this organism, found in a saturated brine pool, has little or no cell turgor pressure. Its shape is probably determined by the pattern in which the cell envelope particles assemble. These square bacteria are so thin and transparent and are so unlike any bacteria previously described that I would have overlooked them if they had not possessed gas vacuoles, and I had not been looking for different forms of gas-vacuolate organisms. The squares derive buoyancy from their gas vacuoles and float at the brine surface.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cohen-Bazire, G., Kunisawa, R. & Pfennig, N. J. Bact. 100, 1049 (1969).
Walsby, A. E. Bact. Rev. 36, 1 (1972).
Walsby, A. E. Microbial Ecol. 1, 51 (1974).
Clark, A. E. & Walsby, A. E. Archs. Microbiol. 118, 223 (1978).
Larsen, H. in The Bacteria Vol. 4, 297–342 (Academic, New York, 1963).
Petter, H. F. M. thesis, Univ. Utrecht (1932).
Krumbein, W. E. et al. Naturwissenschaften (in the press).
Bowen, C. C. & Jensen, T. E. Science 147, 915 (1965).
Walsby, A. E. & Buckland, B. Nature 224, 716 (1969).
Mohr, V. & Larsen, H. J. gen. Microbiol. 31, 267 (1963).
Woese, C. R. & Fox, G. E. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74, 5088 (1977).
Larsen, H., Omang, S. & Steensland, H. Arch. Mikrobiol. 59, 197 (1967).
Walsby, A. E. Proc. R. Soc. B 178, 301 (1971).
Steed, P. D. M. J. gen. Microbiol. 29, 615 (1963).
Walsby, A. E. Proc. R. Soc. B (in the press).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Walsby, A. A square bacterium. Nature 283, 69–71 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/283069a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/283069a0
This article is cited by
-
Previously uncharacterized rectangular bacterial structures in the dolphin mouth
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Combination of statistical methods for easy analysis and classification of virus–host environmental dynamics in the saltern of Sfax, Tunisia
Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration (2022)
-
Cultivation of halophilic archaea (class Halobacteria) from thalassohaline and athalassohaline environments
Marine Life Science & Technology (2021)
-
Haloquadratum walsbyi Yields a Versatile, NAD+/NADP+ Dual Affinity, Thermostable, Alcohol Dehydrogenase (HwADH)
Molecular Biotechnology (2018)
-
Transcriptome analysis of Haloquadratum walsbyi: vanity is but the surface
BMC Genomics (2017)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
