Spirochete
| Spirochaetes | |
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| Spirochaetes. Numbered ticks are 10 µm apart. Gram-stained. | |
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| Treponema pallidum spirochaetes. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Phylum: | Spirochaetes Garrity & Holt 2001 |
| Class: | Spirochaetia Paster 2011 |
| Orders & Families | |
| Synonyms | |
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A spirochaete (/ˈspaɪroʊˌkiːt/)or spirochete is a member of the phylum Spirochaetes (/ˌspaɪroʊˈkiːtiz/), which contains distinctive diderm (double-membrane) bacteria, most of which have long, helically coiled (corkscrew-shaped or spiraled, hence the name) cells. Spirochaetes stain gram-negative and are chemoheterotrophic in nature, with lengths between 3 and 500 µm and diameters around 0.09 to at least 3 µm.
Spirochaetes are distinguished from other bacterial phyla by the location of their flagella, sometimes called axial filaments, which run lengthwise between the bacterial inner membrane and outer membrane in periplasmic space. These cause a twisting motion which allows the spirochaete to move about. When reproducing, a spirochaete will undergo asexual transverse binary fission. Most spirochaetes are free-living and anaerobic, but there are numerous exceptions. Spirochaetes bacteria are diverse in their pathogenic capacity, the ecological niches that they inhabit, as well as molecular characteristics including GC content and genome size.
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