Shewanella algae

Shewanella algae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Proteobacteria
Class:	Gamma Proteobacteria
Order:	Alteromonadales
Family:	Shewanellaceae
Genus:	Shewanella
Species:	S. algae
Binomial name
Shewanella algae Simidu et al. 1990

Shewanella algae is a rod-shaped Gram-negative marine bacterium.

Description

S. algae cells are rod-shaped and straight. They can grow on Salmonella-Shigella agar and form yellow-orange or brown colonies. They produce the toxin tetrodotoxin and can infected humans.

Metabolism

S. algae is a facultative anaerobe with the ability to reduce iron, uranium and plutonium metabolically. When no oxygen is available, it can use metal cations as the terminal electron acceptor in the electron transport chain.

S. algae is of great interest to the United States Department of Energy because of its ability to reduce the amount of radioactive waste in groundwater by making it less soluble. An example would be:

${\begin{array}{lcr}C_{6}H_{12}O_{6}+12U^{6+}+6H_{2}O+24e^{-}\longrightarrow &6CO_{2}+12U^{4+}+24H^{+}\\\qquad Water\ Soluble&Water\ Insoluble\end{array}}$

External links

• Type strain of Shewanella algae at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase