Microbial Mythology

Textbooks and web sites propagate various misconceptions and simple errors about microbiology. Here we provide a place for microbiology educators to set the record straight.
Authors: Please provide primary references, in open-access sources whenever possible.

TCA Cycle: ATP or GTP?

Succinyl-CoA synthetase, also known as succinate thiokinase, is the enzyme of the TCA cycle that interconverts succinyl-CoA with succinate, coupled to formation of a nucleotide triphosphate. Many textbooks and web sites state that succinyl-CoA synthetase phosphorylates only GDP to GTP. See example.
According to the primary literature, however, ADP phosphorylation predominates in E. coli (Margaret Birney et al, 1996) whereas in Pseudomonas sp., various nucleotide diphosphates are phosphorylated (Vinayak Kapatral et al, 2000). Human mitochondria have two forms of the enzyme, which phosphorylate ATP and GTP respectively (David Lambeth et al, 2004).

How Do Conjugation Pili Mediate DNA Transfer?

During bacterial conjugation, the donor and recipient cells are brought together by protein filaments called pili. Since the pili are composed of hollow tubes of protein subunits, like a turret, it was thought for a while that DNA might travel down the hollow tube. The hollow tube theory is still taught; see example. Actually, DNA is transferred across the bacterial envelope by a protein complex embedded in the membranes. For review of classic experiments, see Brigette Dreiseikelmann, 1994. For a more current review, see Inês Chen et al, 2005.