Psychrobacter immobilis
Classification
Bacteria; Proteobacteria; Gammaproteobacteria; Moraxellales; Moraxellaceae; Psychrobacter
Species
Psychrobacter immobilis
Description and Significance
Psychrobacter immobilis is an aerobic, non-motile, gram-negative coccobacillus. It is psychrotropic and halotolerant. It can be found in cold, high salinity environments and is also a normal part of the external microbiota for some sea life. As such, it can be found on chilled or refrigerated seafood.
Genome Structure
Base composition of G+C in P. immobilis DNA is between 44-47%mol
Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle
These cells are .4-1.8μm long, .4-1.6μm wide. They create cream colored colonies and are best grown on marine agar and trypticase soy agar supplemented with NaCl. They can be identified by the presence of oleic acid that they use to maintain their membrane permeability. They also break down uric acid to feed into the tricarboxylic acid cycle.
Ecology and Pathogenesis
P.immobilis has been implicated as an opportunistic pathogen and other Psychrobacter organisms have been found in tissue and cerebral spinal fluid.
References
Bowman, J. P. (2006). The genus Psychrobacter. The Prokaryotes 920–930.
Kämpfer, P., Albrecht, A., Buczolits, S. & Busse, H.-J. (2002). Psychrobacter faecalis sp. nov., a new species from a bioaerosol originating from pigeon faeces. Systematic and Applied Microbiology 25, 31–36.
García-López, M.-L., Santos, J. A., Otero, A. & Rodríguez-Calleja, J. M. (2014). Psychrobacter. Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology 261–268.
Author
Page authored by Ren Gaines, student of Prof. Bradley Tolar at UNC Wilmington.
