title: [Colony structure of a consortium of nitrogen-fixing bacteria].
abstract: Colonies produced by a consortium of nitrifying bacteria were studied using light and electron microscopy. The colonies were obtained by direct plating of inoculum from a two-stage nonsterile chemostat fermentor and by repeatedly passing the microbial community of the fermentor through selective media containing ammonium or nitrite. The colonies studied can be characterized by a specific combination of six types of cells differing in their ultrastructure and spatial location within the colony. The types of cells occurring within a given colony were found to depend on the nitrogen compound present in the medium. As a result of our study, morphological features of colonial bacterial communities were preliminarily identified. The proposed approach can be viewed as a method to describe microbial associations and communities.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk, 660036 Russia.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Puzyr'
authors.forename: O A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Mogil'naia
authors.forename: Iu L
authors.initials: IuL
authors.lastname: Gurevich
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Babkina
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D019149:Bioreactors; D003470:Culture Media; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009586:Nitrogen Fixation
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media