Epulopiscium fishelsoni, Big Bug Baffles Biologists!

Presenters: Peggy E. Pollak, Ph.D and Dr. W. Linn Montgomery
Background
Bibliography
Discussion

Literature Cited

Angert, E.R., A.E. Brooks and N.R. Pace. 1996. Phylogenetic analyses of Metabacterium polyspora: clues to the evolutionary origin of daughter cell production in Epulopiscium species, the largest bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 178:1451-1456

Angert, E.R., K.D. Clements and N.R. Pace. 1993 . The largest bacterium. Nature 362: 239-241.

Bresler, V., W.L. Montgomery, L. Fishelson and P. Pollak. 1998. Gigantism in a bacterium,
Epulopiscium fishelsoni, correlates with complex patterns in arrangement, quantity and segregation of DNA. J. Bacteriology 180 (21): 5601-5611

Clements, K.D., D.C. Sutton and J.H. Choat. 1989 . Occurrence and characteristics of unusual protistan symbionts from surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae) of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Marine Biology 102: 403-414.

Clements, K.D. and S. Bullivant. 1991 . An unusual symbiont from the gut of surgeonfishes may be the largest known prokaryote. J. Bacteriology 173: 5359-5362.

Clements, K.D. 1997. Fermentation and gastrointestinal microorganisms in fishes. Pp. 156-98 in: Gastrointestinal microbiology. Vol. 1: Gastrointestinal ecosystems and fermentations. R.I. Mackie and B.A. White, eds. Chapman and Hall, New York

Fishelson, L., W.L. Montgomery, and A.A. Myrberg. 1985. A unique symbiosis in the gut of tropical herbivorous surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae: Teleostei) from the Red Sea. Science 229: 4951.

Montgomery, W.L. and P.E. Pollak. 1988a. Epulopiscium fishelsoni n.gen, n.sp., a protist of uncertain affinities from the gut of an herbivorous reef fish. J. Protozoology 35 (4): 565569.

Montgomery, W.L. and P.E. Pollak. 1988b. Gut anatomy and pH in a Red Sea surgeonfish, Acanthurus nigrofuscus. Marine Ecology Progress Series 44: 713

Pollak, P.E. and W.L. Montgomery. 1994. Giant bacterium (Epulopiscium fishelsoni) influences digestive enzyme activity of an herbivorous surgeonfish (Acanthurus nigrofuscus). Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 108A: 657-662

Sogin, M.L. 1993. Giants among the prokaryotes. Nature 362: 207

Post your question for Dr. Pollak and/or Dr. Montgomery.

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