Synergistic interactions in the microbial world |
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Authors: | Schink Bernhard |
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Institution: | Fachbereich Biologie, Universit?t Konstanz, Germany. |
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Abstract: | After several decades of microbiological research has focused on pure cultures, synergistic effects between different types
of microorganisms find increasing interest. Interspecies interactions between prokaryotic cells have been studied into depth
mainly with respect to syntrophic cooperations involved in methanogenic degradation of electron-rich substrates such as fatty
acids, alcohols, and aromatics. Partners involved in these processes have to run their metabolism at minimal energy increments,
with only fractions of an ATP unit synthesized per substrate molecule metabolized, and their cooperation is intensified by
close proximity of the partner cells. New examples of such syntrophic activities are anaerobic methane oxidation by presumably
methanogenic and sulfate-reducing prokaryotes, and microbially mediated pyrite formation. Syntrophic relationships have also
been discovered to be involved in the anaerobic metabolization of amino acids and sugars where energetical restrictions do
not necessarily force the partner organisms into strict interdependencies. The most highly developed cooperative systems among
prokaryotic cells appear to be the structurally organized phototrophic consortia of the Chlorochromatium and Pelochromatium type in which phototrophic and chemotrophic bacteria not only exchange metabolites but also interact at the level of growth
coordination and tactic behaviour.
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | |
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