Ultrastructure and Characteristics of a Deep-Sea Bacterium

Abstract

The ultrastructure of a bacterium, isolated from rusticles found on the wreck of the Royal Mail Steamship (R.M.S.) Titanic, was studied. The bacterium was rod-shaped, gram-negative and produced circular, off-white, opaque colonies on marine agar. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the bacterium had a typical gram-negative cell wall structure; the nucleoid region was scattered throughout the cytoplasm and darkly stained inclusions were found in the cytoplasm. Negative staining illustrated the presence of 2-6 peritrichous flagella on the bacterium. This bacterial isolate may be part of transient consortia involved in the formation of the rusticles.