Bacteria .... Believe it .... Not
By Harold Eddleman, Ph. D.

Stranger than fiction; facts about bacteria.

44 million year old spores brought back to life

Written by Harold Eddleman, Ph. D., President, Indiana Biolab, 14045 Huff St., Palmyra IN 47164

Suggestions, corrections, and comments are appreciated: Contact Harold Eddleman (indbio@disknet.com).

(indbio@disknet.com)

http://www.icair.iac.org.nz/science/biotas/manual/methods_vish_1.html --Janthinobacterrium

Austin, B., Conzalez, C.J., Strobie, M., Curry, J.J. and McLoughlin, M.F. (1992). Recovery of Janthinobacterium lividum from diseases rainbow trout, (Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Journal of Fish Diseases, 15, 357- 359.

http://www.icair.iac.org.nz/science/biotas/manual/methods_vish_1.html This URL traces airborne organisms and mentions Janthinobacteria to trace birds in this paper:

WYNN- WILLIAMS, D.D., 1983. Distribution and characteristics of Chromobacterium in the maritime and sub- Antarctic. Polar Biology 2:101- 108. This paper has a selective medium for Janthinobacterium lividium.

Hess, T.F., S.K Schmidt, J Silverstein, and B Howe. 1990. Supplemental substrate enhancement of 2, 4- dinitrophenol mineralization by a bacterial consortium. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 56(6):1551–1558. Key words: bacteria, microorganism, biodegradation A Janthinobacterium sp. and an actinomycete, both capable of mineralizing 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), were used to construct a consortium to mineralize DNP in nonaxenic bench-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). Average Km values for DNP mineralization by pure cultures of the Janthinobacterium sp. and the actinomycete were 0.01 and 0.13 .mu.g/ml, respectively, and the average maximum specific growth rate (.mu.max) values for them were 0.06 and 0.23/h, respectively. In the presence of NH4Cl, nitrite accumulation in pure culture experiments and in the SBRs was stoichiometric to initial DNP concentration and the addition of nitrogen enhanced DNP mineralization in the SBRs. Mineralization of 10 .mu.g of DNP per ml was further enhanced in SBRs by the addition of glucose at concentrations of 100 and 500 .mu.g/ml but not at 10 .mu.g/ml. Possible mechanisms for this enhanced DNP mineralization in SBRs were suggested by kinetic analyses and biomass measurements. Average .mu.max values for DNP mineralization in the presence of 0, 10, 100, and 500 .mu.g of glucose per ml were 0.33, 0.13, 0.42, and 0.59/h, respectively. In addition, there was greater standing biomass in reactors amended with glucose. At steady-state operation, all SBRs contained heterogenous microbial communities by only one organism, an actinomycete, that was capable of mineralizing DNP. This research demonstrates the usefulness of supplemental substrates for enhancing the degradation of toxic chemicals in bioreactors that contain heterogeneous microbial communities.

http://www.cedarcrest.edu/academic/bio/hale/freshMres.html This page has a long, long list of student projects most of them related to isolation of Janthinobacterium from streams and study of its plasmids and genetics.