Bdellovibrio Bacteriovorus
By: Drew Skidmore
Structure / Classification
•
•
•
•
•
Gram negative
Curved bacilli
Long flagellum
A delta proteobacteria
Exist independently
Habitat / Metabolism
•
•
•
•
Found in the ocean and fresh water
6°C to 37°C
Chemoheterotroph
Also found in land habitats and the intestines of
mammals
• Eat gram negative bacteria that often cause
disease in plants, animals, and humans
• It is both aerobic and anaerobic but it works
faster in an aerobic environment
Adaptations
• Two phases of life, attack stage and
growth stage
• Very small 0.2 to 0.5 micrometers x 0.5 to
1.4 micrometers
• Can move 100 cell lengths per second
• Grows inside the prey cell and can
increase its length up to 20 times
• Cell then bursts and the cycle repeats
Wow
• Used to fight food borne illness and can
destroy 90% of an E. Coli colony in an
hour
• Moves at a speed that is equivalent to a
human running at 600 km/hr
• Bore into the prey cell at over 100
rotations per second
Sources
• http://web.mst.edu/~microbio/BIO221_200
1/bdellovibrio_bacteriovorus.html
• http://www.uwo.ca/mni/images/web_image
s/bdellovibrio.png
• http://www.ebi.ac.uk/2can/genomes/bacter
ia/Bdellovibrio_bacteriovorus.html
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3705
13