BIOL446: Aquificales and Their Motility
By: Luna Solis
Department: Biology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. José R. De La Torre
Aquificales are thermophilic bacteria that live in high temperature and diverse environments. These environments include coastal hot springs, thermal springs, terrestrial hot springs, marine hydrothermal area of a volcano island, and deep sea hydrothermal vents. With the many different environments the Aquificales will have to develop certain characteristics to be able to adapt to their surroundings. Some of the challenges they might face would be moving through sediment, rocky magma, seawater, flowing currents, etc. Cell motility is vital for certain bacteria to be able to move around their habitat to optimum environments for survival. Using the Integrated Microbial Genomes (Img) database six different Aquificales proteins and enzymes will be compared to see what contributes to the cell's production of flagella and motility. The six bacteria being compared are: Hydrogenivirga caldilitoris, Hydrogenobacter hydrogenophilus, Thermocrinis minervae, Hydrogenothermus marinus, Persephonella hydrogeniphila, and Venenivibrio stagnispumantis. A difference between these specific bacteria is that some form flagella for motility and some do not. The reason for the bacteria that do not form flagella is that it is not necessary for them to have to move from their environment because they can glide over surfaces.