Introduction
The genus Spirochaeta includes anaerobic and facultatively anaerobic spirochetes that are indigenous to aquatic environments such as the mud and water of ponds and marshes. These spirochetes occur in nature as free-living forms; that is, their existence does not depend on physical associations with other organisms (Canale-Parola, 1984a).
Spirochaeta cells are helically shaped (Fig. 1–12) and possess the typical ultrastructural features of spirochetes (Canale-Parola, 1984b; Fig. 13). The outermost structure of the cells is an “outer membrane,” or “outer sheath,” which encloses the coiled cell body (“protoplasmic cylinder”) consisting of the cytoplasm, the nuclear region, and the peptidoglycan-cytoplasmic membrane complex (Fig. 13). Organelles ultrastructurally similar to bacterial flagella are located in the area between the outer membrane and the protoplasmic cylinder (Fig. 13). These organelles are essential components of the motility apparatus of spirochetes (Paster and...
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Leschine, S., Paster, B.J., Canale-Parola, E. (2006). Free-Living Saccharolytic Spirochetes: The Genus Spirochaeta . In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30747-8_7
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