Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus

Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus
SEM image of V. chlorellavorus (white arrow) attached to Chlorella sorokiniana. Scale bar 5 μm.
Scientific classification
Domain: Bacteria
Kingdom: Bacillati
Phylum: "Candidatus Melainobacteriota"
Class: Vampirovibrionophyceae
Order: Vampirovibrionales
Chuvochina et al. 2024
Family: Vampirovibrionaceae
Chuvochina et al. 2024
Genus: Vampirovibrio
Gromov and Mamkayeva 1980
Species:
V. chlorellavorus
Binomial name
Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus
(ex Gromov and Mamkayeva 1972) Gromov and Mamkayeva 1980
Synonyms
  • "Bdellovibrio chlorellavorus" Gromov and Mamkayeva 1972

Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus is a 0.6 μm pleomorphic coccus with a gram negative cell wall, and is one of the few known predatory bacteria. Unlike many bacteria, V. chlorellavorus is an obligate parasite, attaching to the cell wall of green algae of the genus Chlorella. The name Vampirovibrio originates from the Serbian vampir (Cyrillic: вампир). meaning vampire (due to the nature of sucking out cellular contents of its prey) and vibrio referring to the bacterial genus of curved rod bacterium. Chlorellavorus is named for the algal host of the bacterium (Chlorella) and the Latin voro meaning "to devour" (Chlorella-devouring).