Spirillum bacteria move in a corkscrew-like fashion and typically live as single cells. Most types live in water with organic matter, but S. minus can cause rat bite fever. They have unusual flagella clusters that cause their motion. Spirillumvolutens is one of the largest species of bacteria and is difficult to cultivate. The family Spirillaceae includes human pathogens like Lyme disease and syphilis. S. minus is a causative agent of rat bite fever, contracted through bites or exposure to infected animal secretions.
The spirillum is a type of bacterium that moves in a characteristic spiral, or corkscrew-like fashion. It typically lives as single cells, instead of being associated in groups or chains. There is also a genus of gram-negative bacteria known as Spirillum, most of which live in water with a large amount of organic matter, such as stagnant pools. A notable exception is Spirillum minus (S. minus), which is one of two types of bacteria that can cause rat bite fever.
Most types of bacteria possess flagella, or whip-like appendages, that help them move through solutions. Bacteria of this genus have unusual types of flagella. These bacteria were originally thought to have an individual flagellum on each end of their cells, but are now known to have a cluster on each end, made up of about 75 individual appendages. It is the motion of these that causes organisms to move in their characteristic corkscrew-like fashion.
Spirillumvolutens has been much studied, as it is one of the largest species of bacteria. It was observed by the first microscopists and identified in 1832. The name of this organism comes from the storage granules of carbohydrates within the organism, known as volutin.
It can be difficult to cultivate these bacteria, and S.volotens could not be grown in pure culture until recently. It turns out that the body requires small amounts of oxygen but is poisoned by environmental concentrations. When there were contaminating organisms in the cultures, they consumed enough oxygen to allow S.volutens to grow, but when in pure culture, however, it was unable to grow with the increased oxygen concentrations. Once this requirement was understood, the researchers were able to grow this bacterium in pure culture.
The family Spirillaceae is closely related to the family that includes Spirochetes. This family of bacteria includes numerous human pathogens, including the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and syphilis. These organisms are also spirilla and move like a corkscrew. They differ from Spirillaceae in having specialized structures in place of flagella and in having an outer sheath.
One species of the genus, S. minus, is a human pathogen. It is one of the causative agents of rat bite fever, although this form of the disease is found less frequently than other bacterial forms. It is mostly a problem in Asia, being known as sodoku in Japan. This disease is typically contracted from bites from rats, mice, and other rodents, or through exposure to the urine or secretions of an infected animal.
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