I assume these are spirochetes?

[macnmotion]

I believe these are spirochetes. Water sample from a banana tree stump in my yard. FOV: 240 x 135 microns. Is there any way to know if these are dangerous?

https://youtu.be/PmA--26hu5s

[LouiseScot]

I believe these are spirochetes. Water sample from a banana tree stump in my yard. FOV: 240 x 135 microns. Is there any way to know if these are dangerous?

https://youtu.be/PmA--26hu5s

I'm not sure but I think it's more likely a species of nematode, but it's hard to gauge the size without a scale bar.

Louise

[macnmotion]

I believe these are spirochetes. Water sample from a banana tree stump in my yard. FOV: 240 x 135 microns. Is there any way to know if these are dangerous?

https://youtu.be/PmA--26hu5s

I'm not sure but I think it's more likely a species of nematode, but it's hard to gauge the size without a scale bar.

Louise

There is a scale bar in the bottom right corner, hard to see I know. As I mentioned in the original post, the FOV is 240x135 microns.

These don't move like any nematodes I've ever seen.

[Alexander]

This things are too long to be spirochetes.

[macnmotion]

This things are too long to be spirochetes.

What's the normal size for spirochetes? -- I'm seeing numbers from as low as 5 microns to as high as 250-500 microns in length. Based on the vertical FOV of the video, which is 135 microns, the vertically-stretched organism about 2 seconds into the video is approximately 75 microns in length. Any idea what else it would be? I'd love to properly ID these.

The organisms in my video appear to move similarly to those in this video I found on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cXYfT5hSLoQ -- the one in the YouTube video seems to be about 30 microns in length. Another video shows something similar to what I captured and about the same length or even longer, at about 20 seconds into this video: https://youtu.be/Vf75keToQ4I

[Alexander]

The typical spirochetes like Borrelia, Brachyspira, Leptospira or Treponema are all between 5 and 20 µm. That is already quite long for a bacterium.

Maybe there are longer ones but I have never seen one.

[LouiseScot]

I believe these are spirochetes. Water sample from a banana tree stump in my yard. FOV: 240 x 135 microns. Is there any way to know if these are dangerous?

https://youtu.be/PmA--26hu5s

I'm not sure but I think it's more likely a species of nematode, but it's hard to gauge the size without a scale bar.

Louise

There is a scale bar in the bottom right corner, hard to see I know. As I mentioned in the original post, the FOV is 240x135 microns.

These don't move like any nematodes I've ever seen.

Ah sorry - I somehow missed the fov! But I can't see the scale bar on youtube - it's covered. Having looked into it a bit more, they could be free-living (not dangerous) spirochaetes which apparently can grow up to 500um - who knew?!

Louise

[macnmotion]

Hi Louise, Yeah, my scale indicator sucked!! today I made it easier to see (I hope) for use in future videos.

We've had terrible flooding rains for the past few months (I'm in Bangkok), and I always worry about what's left in the yard, especially with dogs here. I was surprised to find these in the stump of a banana tree. Fortunately, the rainy season is ending and everything in the yard is drying up.

[LouiseScot]

Hi Louise, Yeah, my scale indicator sucked!! today I made it easier to see (I hope) for use in future videos.

We've had terrible flooding rains for the past few months (I'm in Bangkok), and I always worry about what's left in the yard, especially with dogs here. I was surprised to find these in the stump of a banana tree. Fortunately, the rainy season is ending and everything in the yard is drying up.

Hiya
I've been to Thailand a couple of times (Pattaya, not Bangkok) - it's never cold like here in Glasgow! Used to love going out on the hot evenings and drinking cold lager ha ha.
Those organisms did look odd to me. They did seem to resemble baby C. elegans which made me think they could be a species of nematodes. There are bacteria called Spirillum volutans which are spiral shaped and can be up to 60um. However, they are rigid which your specimens aren't. When I did some further research, it appeared that some spirochaetes could be up to 500um i.e. half a millimetre! I never knew any bacteria could be so big!

Louise

[macnmotion]

Leave it to Thailand to be the home of 1/2mm bacteria

[apochronaut]

Spirochaetes and Spirilla are different things. Possibly what you are encountering are spirilla, which are common in stagnant water and not considered pathogenic.


Stagnant fresh water will sprout all kinds of highly motile long bacteria, some of which exhibit a corkscrew motion.
.

[LouiseScot]

Spirochaetes and Spirilla are different things. Possibly what you are encountering are spirilla, which are common in stagnant water and not considered pathogenic.


Stagnant fresh water will sprout all kinds of highly motile long bacteria, some of which exhibit a corkscrew motion.
.

Spirilla have rigid bodies. The OP's sample does more resemble the spirochaetes in the YT videos he posted in #5

Louise

[macnmotion]

Spirochaetes and Spirilla are different things. Possibly what you are encountering are spirilla, which are common in stagnant water and not considered pathogenic.


Stagnant fresh water will sprout all kinds of highly motile long bacteria, some of which exhibit a corkscrew motion.
.

A few weeks ago when I first started, I found a tiny corkscrew organism from the same banana tree stump. It wasn't very well defined, I was pushing the limits of my microscope, but I thought it was a spirochete. Now that I've seen the organisms I posted in this thread, I believe that first one a few weeks ago was a spirilla -- it didn't have the jerky movement like the ones here, and it was rigid unlike these. These latest corkscrews are much better defined, both because I used an oil objective and because since last time I discovered I could set my camera to use a crop of the sensor, giving me a size boost.

[apochronaut]

Spirochaetes and Spirilla are different things. Possibly what you are encountering are spirilla, which are common in stagnant water and not considered pathogenic.


Stagnant fresh water will sprout all kinds of highly motile long bacteria, some of which exhibit a corkscrew motion.
.

Spirilla have rigid bodies. The OP's sample does more resemble the spirochaetes in the YT videos he posted in #5

Louise

Morphological charcteristics when it comes to bacteria however need to be kept flexible. Bacterial monomorphism as a useful theory is quickly dying out and becoming increasingly irrelevant. Both Knaysi and Bisset ascribed flexibility in some cases to Spirillum and no doubt others have. Treponema Palidum , which is considered a spirochaete, has been shown to be very flat in cross section, at least in those samples : more of an obstacle course form than a spiral.

What does happen under highly volatile climatic conditions is that numerous survival mrchanisms come to the fore and the standards based on lab study can quickly go out the window, so should sticking to a rigid morphology doctrine.

Another genus that should be considered are the Flavobacterium, which includes many very long species, some of which move very quickly in a corkscrew fashion. I have seen some similar to that illustrated at various times coming from warm yucky water in the summer.

[macnmotion]

Morphological charcteristics when it comes to bacteria however need to be kept flexible. Bacterial monomorphism as a useful theory is quickly dying out and becoming increasingly irrelevant. Both Knaysi and Bisset ascribed flexibility in some cases to Spirillum and no doubt others have. Treponema Palidum , which is considered a spirochaete, has been shown to be very flat in cross section, at least in those samples : more of an obstacle course form than a spiral.

What does happen under highly volatile climatic conditions is that numerous survival mrchanisms come to the fore and the standards based on lab study can quickly go out the window, so should sticking to a rigid morphology doctrine.

Another genus that should be considered are the Flavobacterium, which includes many very long species, some of which move very quickly in a corkscrew fashion. I have seen some similar to that illustrated at various times coming from warm yucky water in the summer.

Excellent information, thank you.

[samt]

Hi,

thanks for the thread. I observed yesterday what seems to be the very same as yours. Also moving as corkscrew, but also grouping itself into a wider spiral.



Did you reached any conclusion regarding the ID?

Sam

[WWWW]

Beautiful spirochaetes, well done !

[macnmotion]

Hi,

thanks for the thread. I observed yesterday what seems to be the very same as yours. Also moving as corkscrew, but also grouping itself into a wider spiral.



Did you reached any conclusion regarding the ID?

Sam

I'm of the mind that mine were spirochetes, and yours look just the same as mine did. I also shot with a 40x objective (because I didn't image through the eyepiece I can't identify the magnification as 400x, but the result would be somewhat similar to the size you captured). Nice video!

[samt]

Thanks for your answers! So spirochetes they are, I'll read about them.

[WWWW]

@ macnmotion,

I'm very sorry. I saw your video on my smartphone and couldn't see the spirochaetes. Now looking again on my computer (bigger screen) I do see the very long spirochaetes !!