Spirillum

According to microbiology, Spirillum is a gram-negative, motile helical cell with tufts of whiplike flagella at either end. Spirillum volutans is the largest spirillum, with a helix that is 5 to 8 m (micrometres; 1 m = 10-6 metre) wide and 60 m long.  minus, which may be found in seemingly healthy mice and rats’ blood, can be passed on to other rodents, primates, and humans. Aquaspirillum and Oceanospirillum have been offered as names for free-living aquatic forms.

What is Spirillum?

 Spirillum (plural, Spirillum) is a bacterial group with a corkscrew (spiral) appearance. They are Gram-negative bacteria with motile features called flagella. Except for one species, members of this group are often found in aquatic environments where they can swim swiftly.

Even though many  Spirillum species flourish in certain aquatic environments, others are responsible for a range of human and animal diseases.  Spirillum bacteria had previously been recognised as belonging to the Spirillum genus.

Description and Significance

In the 1670s, Van Leeuwenhoek and Muller are credited with being the first to characterise Spirillum bacteria. S. volutans is a large, helical-shaped bacterium that is an obligate microaerophile.

Cell Structure and Metabolism

Spirillum bacteria are massive chemotrophic  Spirillum with one to five helical turns with diameters ranging from 1.4 to 1.7 micrometres and lengths of up to 60 micrometres. Spirochetes have a flexible cell structure, whereas helical cells are rigid. The body form has been characterised as coccoid, but it has also been compared to the body shape of a microcyst, even though the bacterium has no relation to myxobacteria microcysts. They feature crescent-shaped bipolar flagella that assist them in moving by rotating at high speeds, forming aligned cones of rotation that reverse their arrangement when the swimming direction is changed. Even though the cells contain a large number of flagella,

They are found in tufts on the cell, where individual flagella combine into a single fascicle that seems to be a single flagellum when stained normally. The bacteria contain volutin granules made of poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), not polyphosphate, as the name volutin has come to signify. They have a purely respiratory metabolism and are microaerophilic, requiring an environment containing 1 to 9 per cent oxygen for development. Although catalase activity is low, the oxidase and phosphatase tests yielded good results. Furthermore, the bacteria cannot reduce nitrates and so cannot grow anaerobically on nitrate; it does not oxidise or ferment carbohydrates. It has not been shown to hydrolyze casein, gelatin, starch, or esculin.

Flagella

As previously indicated, Spirillum bacteria have bipolar flagella tufts. Initially thought to be single flagella, they were later discovered to be fascicles of numerous aggregated flagella. It has been proposed that the neutralisation of electrical charges is responsible for the aggregation of individual flagella based on an experiment in which the flagellar fascicles were no longer visible when the cell was washed in distilled water but became visible again when as little as 0.001 M NaCl or other salts were added (Krieg 1976).

Because Spirillum bacteria are enormous  Spirillum, their flagella have a long wavelength of more than 3 micrometres and usually just one complete wave (this is in contrast to at least one large spirillum and those of medium or small diameter have flagella with several waves and a short wavelength). The fascicles are also rather large, with around 75 different flagella, each of which is implanted into the cell individually and hence travels autonomously. They are crescent-shaped in a single plane, as opposed to corkscrew-shaped or helically curved.

Spirillum Bacteria Examples

spirillum bacteria examples Spirillum is a bacterium with a rigid spiral (helical) structure (not easily banded, not flexible), that is thick, long, travels with flagella and is 6–15 m in length and spiral form. For example, Campylobacter jejuni and Helicobacter pylori.

Spirillum Uses

Spirillum uses is a genus of spiral-shaped bacteria in the Spirillaceae family that is generally found in water, except for one species (Spirillum minus) that causes human rat-bite fever. Spirillum refers to any species that resembles a corkscrew.

Conclusion 

Spirillum is a genus of spiral bacteria that have a tough cell wall and polar flagella that allow them to move. They, too, are gram-negative bacteria. They’re known as aerobes. Spirochetes, on the other hand, are a phylum of spiral bacteria with a flexible cell wall and movement based on axial filaments. They are, however, difficult to cultivate. They’re also significantly larger than  Spirillum. Thus, the fundamental distinctions between  Spirillum and spirochetes are shape and pathogenicity.