Sphingomonos aromaticivorans F199 was discovered in South Carolina by Balkwill et al. from sediments collected about 410 meters (1345 feet) below the earth’s suface in 1988. I find this bacteria fascinating because it lives in such a light and oxygen free environment, with very little carbon availability.
Some basic physical characteristics of S. aromaticivorans are its rod (bacillus) shape, a single polar flagellum, and yellow pigment. S. aromaticivorans is an oligotroph, meaning it has a very high affinity system for nutrient uptake, and is able survive in environments with very low nutrient concentration. One peculiar feature of this bacterium is that it is gram negative, but unlike other gram negative bacteria, it contains no lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in its cell membrane. Instead it contains glycosphingolipid, which is usually a component of eukaryotic cell walls.
S. aromaticivorans is a chemoautotroph, so it uses organic molecules for both its energy source and its carbon source. Perhaps the most impressive feature of S. aromaticivorans is its metabolic plasticity. It is believed that this is due to the low amounts of diverse, yet complex organic available to it in the environment in which it was discovered. This bacterium is famous for its able to break down many aromatic compounds, including toluene, xylene, fluorine, and naphthalene, just to name a few.
The fact that such an organism can live off of so little suggests that microbial life may exist elsewhere in our solar system. Both mars and the icy moon Europa of Jupiter are excellent candidates of microbial life.
References
http://www.jgi.doe.gov/JGI_microbial/html/novosphingobium/sphingo_facts.html
http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/1/191
http://www.lehigh.edu/~sk08/Courses/Bios324/module1.htm
*Disclaimer - This report was written by a student participaring in a microbiology course at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The accuracy of the contents of this report is not guaranteed and it is recommended that you seek additional sources of information to verify the contents.
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