capnophile

Article summary

, a type of capnophile. Capnophiles are microorganisms that thrive in the presence of high concentrations of carbon dioxide ( ). Some capnophiles may have a metabolic requirement for carbon dioxide, while others merely compete more successfully for resources under these conditions. The term is a generally descriptive one and has less relevance as a means of establishing a taxonomic or evolutionary relationship among organisms with this characteristic. For example, the ability of capnophiles to tolerate (or utilize) the amount of oxygen that is also in their environment may vary widely and may be far more critical to their survival. Species of Campylobacter are bacterial capnophiles that are more easily identified because they are also microaerophiles, organisms that can grow in high carbon dioxide as long as a small amount of free oxygen is present, but at a dramatically reduced concentration. (In the Earth's atmosphere carbon dioxide levels are approximately five hundred times lower than that of oxygen, 0.04% and 21% of the total, respectively.) Obligate anaerobes are microbes that will die in the presence of oxygen without respect to the concentration of carbon dioxide in their environment, and typically acquire energy through anaerobic respiration or fermentation. In 2004, a capnophilic bacterium was characterized that appears to require carbon dioxide.…

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