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Intestinal Spirochetes of Termites

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All Flesh Is Grass

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 16))

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Abstract

Spirochetes differ from all other bacteria by their unique morphology and ­mechanism of motility. The cells possess a helical shape, and the flagella (axial filaments) are located in the periplasmic space. The flagella are attached to the cell poles and wrapped around the protoplasmic cylinder. The flagella and the protoplasmic cylinder are surrounded by a multilayered outer sheath or outer cell envelope (Canale-Parola, 1984). The 16S rRNA sequences demonstrated that the spirochetes represent a monophyletic phylum within the bacteria (Paster and Dewhirst, 2001).

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Acknowledgment

The author thanks Dr. Hertel from the Bundesanstalt für Materialprüfung und Materialforschung, Berlin, for supplying the termite cultures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology and Wine Research, Johannes Gutenberg-University, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Helmut KÖnig & Stefan Dröge

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  1. Helmut KÖnig
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  2. Stefan Dröge
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Correspondence to Helmut KÖnig .

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  1. , The Mina & Everard Goodman Fac. of Life, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 52900, Israel

    Zvy Dubinsky

  2. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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KÖnig, H., Dröge, S. (2010). Intestinal Spirochetes of Termites. In: Dubinsky, Z., Seckbach, J. (eds) All Flesh Is Grass. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9316-5_3

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