Imhoff, Johannes F. and Whitman, William B. (2021) Rhodospirillum . In: Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria. . Wiley, Chichester, pp. 1-10. DOI 10.1002/9781118960608.gbm00897.pub2.

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Abstract

Rho.do.spi.ril'lum. Gr. neut. n. rhodon, the rose; N.L. neut. n. Spirillum, a bacterial genus; N.L. neut. n. Rhodospirillum, the rose Spirillum.

Proteobacteria / Alphaproteobacteria / Rhodospirillales / Rhodospirillaceae / Rhodospirillum

The genus Rhodospirillum has harbored a diverse set of spiral-shaped phototrophic bacteria, most of which have been reclassified as species of other genera, families, and even orders and phyla since the 1980s. The heterogeneity has been long known, but only the faith into sequence-based information gave strong support for taxonomic rearrangements. Currently, the genus Rhodospirillum contains a single species, which is characterized by spiral-shaped cells, motility by bipolar flagella, and internal membranes as vesicles. It performs anaerobic photosynthesis, which is restricted to anoxic light conditions due to the oxygen-sensitive biosynthesis of bacteriochlorophyll and thus the phototrophic apparatus. It can grow photoheterotrophically as well as photoautotrophically. The key enzyme of autotrophic carbon dioxide fixation in Rhodospirillum rubrum, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RubisCO) type-II, is well characterized and forms a homodimer that is also encoded in some related genera of Rhodospirillaceae. Chemotrophic growth may also occur under microoxic to oxic conditions in the dark and anaerobically by fermentation. The genus comprises mesophilic freshwater bacteria. Ubiquinones and rhodoquinones with 10 isoprene units and fatty acids typical of other Alphaproteobacteria with C18:1, C16:0, and C16:1 as major components are present.

DNA G + C content (mol%): 64.6–65.7, type 65.4 (genome analysis), 63.8–65.8 (Bd).

Type species: Rhodospirillum (Rsp.) rubrum Molisch 1907AL (basonym: Spirillum rubrum Esmarch 1887).

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