Gloeobacter

Gloeobacter
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Cyanobacteria
Class: Cyanophyceae
Order: Gloeobacterales
Cavalier-Smith
Family: Gloeobacteraceae
Komárek et Anagnostidis
Genus: Gloeobacter
Rippka, Waterbury, & Cohen-Bazire, 1974[1]
Species
Scanning electron micrograph of Gloebacter kilaueensis JS1T cells grown in modified BG-11 liquid medium

Gloeobacter is a genus of cyanobacteria. It is the sister group to all other cyanobacteria.[2] Gloeobacter is unique among cyanobacteria in not having thylakoids, which are characteristic for all other cyanobacteria and chloroplasts. Instead, the light-harvesting complexes (also called phycobilisomes), that consist of different proteins, sit on the inside of the plasma membrane among the (cytoplasm). Subsequently, the proton gradient in Gloeobacter is created over the plasma membrane, where it forms over the thylakoid membrane in cyanobacteria and chloroplasts.[2]

The whole genome of G. violaceus (strain PCC 7421) and of G. kilaueensis have been sequenced. Many genes for photosystem I and II were found missing, likely related to the fact that photosynthesis in these bacteria does not take place in the thylakoid membrane as in other cyanobacteria, but in the plasma membrane.[3][4]

  1. ^ Komárek J, Kaštovský J, Mareš J, Johansen JR (2014). "Taxonomic classification of cyanoprokaryotes (cyanobacterial genera) 2014, using a polyphasic approach" (PDF). Preslia. 86: 295–335.
  2. ^ a b Antonia Herrero, Enrique Flores (2008). The Cyanobacteria: Molecular Biology, Genomics and Evolution. Horizon. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-904455-15-8.
  3. ^ Nakamura Y, Kaneko T, Sato S, et al. (2003). "Complete genome structure of Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421, a cyanobacterium that lacks thylakoids". DNA Res. 10 (4): 137–45. doi:10.1093/dnares/10.4.137. PMID 14621292.
  4. ^ Saw JH, Schatz M, Brown MV, Kunkel DD, Foster JS, Shick H, et al. (2013). "Cultivation and Complete Genome Sequencing of Gloeobacter kilaueensis sp. nov., from a Lava Cave in Kīlauea Caldera, Hawai'i". PLOS ONE. 8 (10): e76376. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...876376S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076376. PMC 3806779. PMID 24194836.