Gfaj-1 NEUF2011: Difference between revisions
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Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces. | Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces. | ||
GFAJ-1 is rod-shaped (bacillus) bacterium known to be an extremophile or more appropriately, a halophile meaning it is capable of living in environments with extremely high salt concentrations that would kill most other bacteria. GFAJ-1 like other halophiles, is able to produce osmoprotectants which build up in the organism’s cytoplasm along with other ions to deal with the hypotonic environment and ultimately protect against high salt levels. | GFAJ-1 is rod-shaped (bacillus) bacterium known to be an extremophile or more appropriately, a halophile meaning it is capable of living in environments with extremely high salt concentrations that would kill most other bacteria. GFAJ-1 like other halophiles, is able to produce osmoprotectants which build up in the organism’s cytoplasm along with other ions to deal with the hypotonic environment and ultimately protect against high salt levels [4]. Living in a high salt environment means water will inherently want to move down the concentration gradient and travel out of the cell into the outside environment, so any halophilic organism must deal with this problem. | ||
==Ecology== | ==Ecology== | ||
Revision as of 00:15, 5 October 2011
A Microbial Biorealm page on the genus Gfaj-1 NEUF2011
Classification
Higher order taxa
Domain; Phylum; Class; Order; family [Others may be used. Use NCBI link to find]
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Proteobacteria
Class: Gammaproteobacteria
Order: Oceanospirillales
Family: Halomonadaceae
Species: GFAJ-1
Species
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NCBI: Taxonomy |
GFAJ-1 is actually not a new species but is considered a new strain of the family Halomonadaceae.
Description and significance
Describe the appearance, habitat, etc. of the organism, and why you think it is important.
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?
Cell structure and metabolism
Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.
GFAJ-1 is rod-shaped (bacillus) bacterium known to be an extremophile or more appropriately, a halophile meaning it is capable of living in environments with extremely high salt concentrations that would kill most other bacteria. GFAJ-1 like other halophiles, is able to produce osmoprotectants which build up in the organism’s cytoplasm along with other ions to deal with the hypotonic environment and ultimately protect against high salt levels [4]. Living in a high salt environment means water will inherently want to move down the concentration gradient and travel out of the cell into the outside environment, so any halophilic organism must deal with this problem.
Ecology
The recently discovered GFAJ-1 bacterium, isolated from Mono Lake in California, has provided researchers substantial information pertaining to the growth of organisms in extremely harsh environments in which life was thought to be nearly non-existent. Mono Lake has quite abnormal qualities in that it is hypersaline and a highly alkaline body of water. The salt content of the lake had been measured to be approximately 90 grams/liter and the pH to be around 9.8 [1]. But most interesting of all is Mono Lake’s highest natural concentrations of arsenic in the world with a concentration of roughly 200μM. These high levels are thought to occur because the arid environment has significant evaporation over precipitation and the abundance of hot-springs in the area [2].
It had been found that many bacteria are known to be able to withstand high levels of arsenic and have the molecular adaptations in order to so. However, when starved for essential nutrients, in particular phosphorus, the GFAJ-1 bacterium will actually incorporate arsenic from the water into its molecular machinery, replacing phosphorus, to continue living and growing [3].
Because so little is known about this recently discovered bacterium, it still very much unclear as to how it actually survives by replacing phosphorus with arsenic. The original study of the GFAJ-1 bacterium exhibited arsenic-dependent growth through means of AsO43- uptake and assimilation into key biomolecules that include nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolites. However, when provided with phosphorus, GFAJ-1 grew significantly better indicating that the bacterium is not purely an arsenophile [2].
The contributions made by this arsenophile to the environment is also unclear, however it is thought to be linked to an environmental flow of energy particularly the mobilization of solid phase arsenic found in minerals to an aqueous phase. It is speculated that the arsenic cycling nature of the bacterium negatively contributes to the contamination of drinking water of nearby wells [2].
Pathology
How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.
Current Research
Enter summaries of the most recent research here--at least three required
Cool Factor
Describe something you fing "cool" about this microbe.
References
1. Oremland, R., and J. Stolz. "The Ecology of Arsenic." Science 300 (2003): 939-944.
2. Wolfe-Simon, Felisa, Jodi Blum, Thomas Kulp, et.al. "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus." Science 332 (2011): 1163-1166.
3. Bortman, Henry. "Thriving on Arsenic." Astrobiology Magazine -- The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Universe. NASA, 2 Dec. 2010.
4. Santos, H and M. S Da Costa. 2002. Compatible solutes of organisms that live in hot saline environments. Environmental Microbiology 4: 501-509
Edited by student of Iris Keren
