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The Prokaryotes pp 758–777Cite as

The Genera Leptothrix and Sphaerotilus

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Introduction

Representatives of the genera Leptothrix and Sphaerotilus were among the first microorganisms to be recognized in the environment and described in detail by scientists. The type species of the genus Leptothrix, L. ochracea, was already observed in the late eighteenth century and described by Roth (1797) under the synonym “Conferva ochracea.” Later, Kützing (1843) proposed to place this species within the genus Leptothrix. Ten years earlier, the same author had published a description of the species Sphaerotilus natans (Kützing, 1833), which is today still known under this name. These early publications were probably evoked by the observation of ocherous deposits (clearly visible to the naked eye) in ponds or slowly running water. A microscopic examination of these suspicious aggregates led then to the discovery of filamentous microorganisms, which were obviously responsible for the deposition of iron or ferromanganese oxides in a slimy matrix, resulting in the typical...

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Authors
  1. Stefan Spring
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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Spring, S. (2006). The Genera Leptothrix and Sphaerotilus . In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30745-1_35

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