Cell biology of unique anammox bacteria that conta

Authors: Laura van Niftrik

Publish Date: 2013/08/09

Volume: 104, Issue: 4, Pages: 489-497

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Abstract

Anammox bacteria obtain their energy for growth from the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium with nitrite to dinitrogen gas This property has made anammox bacteria very valuable for industry where they are applied for the removal of nitrogen compounds from industrial and domestic wastewaters Anammox bacteria are also important in nature where they contribute significantly to oceanic nitrogen loss Further anammox bacteria have similarities to both Archaea and Eukarya making them extremely interesting from a cell biological perspective The anammox cell does not conform to the typical prokaryotic cell plan single bilayer membranes divide the anammox cell into three distinct cellular compartments that possibly also have distinct cellular functions The innermost and largest compartment the anammoxosome is the location of the energy metabolism The middle compartment the riboplasm contains the nucleoid and ribosomes and thus has a genetic information processing function Finally the outermost compartment the paryphoplasm has an as yet unknown function In addition anammox bacteria are proposed to have an atypical cell wall devoid of both peptidoglycan and a typical outer membrane Here I review the current knowledge on the cell biology of this enigmatic group of bacteriaI would like to thank our past and present coworkers at the department of Microbiology and all of our international collaborators and granting agencies Further I would specifically like to thank Sarah Neumann Muriel van Teeseling Huub Op den Camp Boran Kartal Jan Keltjens and Mike Jetten for discussions LvN is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research VENI Grant Number 86309009

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