Week 1: Bacteria as Individuals
Hi everyone
I wanted to introduce myself to all of you; I am Thermus aquaticus. I was first discovered by Thomas D. Brock in 1966 while he was bio-prospecting. He found me while I was hanging out in the Mushroom Pool of Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. Brock found me to be quite an interesting microbe and within the up and coming weeks I will tell you about all I can do. Since my discovery I have also been spotted in the hot springs of Iceland. I am a thermophile, which means I can survive at temperatures above 40oC. We are a select group of microbes that can survive at this extremely high temperature and we don’t mingle with microbes that live in less extreme conditions. I replicate and grow the best when the temperature of the water is 70oC. I divide by an invagination of my cell wall and the plasma membrane like the gram negative bacteria E. coli
I am heterotrophic and I generally feed on the algal-bacterial mat which is at the surface of the hot spring. The algal-bacterial mat is made up of decomposing organic matter and is a major source of organic compounds for me to feed on. I might also feed on dead heterotrophs and chemotrophs if they are in my surrounding environment, but that is not what I prefer
I am a gram-negative bacterium with a yellow tint to my cell. Sometimes I grow as a rod and sometimes I grow as a short filament. I do not have any way of moving since there are no flagella or cilia present on my body. I only communicate with other microbes if they come close to me
