Arthrobacter oxydans
Classification
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Actinobacteria
Class: Actinobacteria
Order: Actinomycetales
Family: Micrococcaceae
Genus: Arthrobacter
Species: oxydans
Species
NCBI: Taxonomy |
Arthrobacter oxydans
Habitat Information
The location where I grabbed my soil sample was in Round Rock, Texas, on the edge of a residential area and a parking lot. It was September 02, 2015 around noon and the temperature was 90ºF with humidity of 45% and air pressure of 30 inches. There was no rainfall on that day or the past seven. I grabbed the surface soil which was very rocky and then an hour later I was able to do soil dilutions. The precise GPS location of my soil sample location was 30º29'56.9" N and 97º36'05.1" W.
Description and Significance
Describe the appearance (colonial and cellular), possible antimicrobial activity etc. of the organism, and why the organism might be significant.
When cultured on an LB agar, Arthrobacter oxydans is a milky white, opaque, round, convex and small, almost punctiform shape.
When it comes to Arthrobacter, it's a special cellular shape. Depending on what point you stain the bacteria, you can get either rods, or cocci. In the younger phase, when plated on to fresh media, Arthrobacter tends to be a rod shaped and upon aging tends to morph into it's cocci stage, in which was the stage we were able to observe it under a microscope. It was also gram-positive (but can appear gram-negative in younger stages) and our endospore stain showed that it was a non spore producing bacterium without a capsule.
Arthrobacter is also non-motile and completely susceptible to E. coli and S. aureus, with our plates being overgrown with each bacteria.
Genome Structure
Describe the size and content of the genome. How many chromosomes? Circular or linear? Other interesting features? What is known about its sequence? Include S Ribosomal sequence that you obtained from PCR and sequencing here.
Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle
Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.
Physiology and Pathogenesis
Biochemical characteristics, enzymes made, other characteristics that may be used to identify the organism; contributions to environment (if any).
If relevant, how does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.
References
Author
Page authored by Nadia Didehbani and Kendra Dubec, students of Prof. Kristine Hollingsworth at Austin Community College.