Epsilon of the Deeps – Coming to an Organ System near You:
[Via Catalogue of Organisms]
The Pompeii worm (Alvinella pompejana), an inhabitant of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, with a covering of filaments composed of symbiotic ε-proteobacteria. Photo by Alison Murray.
There can be no denying that the direct analysis of DNA sequence data sparked a revolution in bacterial systematics. Previously-recognised taxa were reinforced or struck down, while entirely new groups were raised to recognition. The Proteobacteria were definitely one of the most significant of these new groups. By far the largest of the commonly-recognised major bacterial subdivisions, the Proteobacteria encompass a wide variety of taxa, including photosynthetic, colonial and heterotrophic forms. Indeed, the very name “Proteobacteria” reflects this diversity, naming the group after the shape-shifting Greek sea-god Proteus (the inclusion in the Proteobacteria of the the genus Proteus, named after the same polymorphic god, seems to have been purely a coincidence). Within the Proteobacteria, molecular data distinguished five major subdivisions, which have been rather prosaically dubbed the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and (surprise, surprise) Epsilon groups. Recent analyses have generally continued to support the distinction of these groups (though the boundary between the β and γ groups may sometimes be a little fuzzy), but it is with the last group, the Epsilonproteobacteria, that we are concerned today.
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Proteobacteria are some of the most interesting organisms around, with some very unusual metabolic pathways. This article has a lot of jargon (i.e. heterotrophic, clades) but the important things to remember is that learning about these extremophiles can give us insights into alternative ways for life to exist.
Living near underwater vents, outside of the range of the sun, these organisms must live without photosynthesis to create organic material. Hydrothermal vents provide their own energy sources as well as their own ecosystems. Perhaps this is where the first organisms arose on Earth, using the Earth’s own energy to provide life, not the Sun’s.
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