Discover Your Microbe Personality: Which Microbe Are You?

Ruegeria pomeroyi You are…
Ruegeria pomeroyi!

Congratulations! You are Ruegeria pomeroyi!

You and R. pomeroyi share a taste for “eating out” – this microbe feeds on live bacterial cells and organic debris instead of making its own food. Just as you don‘t like the color purple, this microbe does not retain crystal violet dye which is used to study a microbe cell wall structure.

Also, R. pomeroyi is just as unlikely as you are to “hold its breath” for very long because it requires oxygen to survive. R. pomeroyi also has the unusual ability to form dimethyl sulfide gas, which is important in cloud formation!

Photo credit: Gonzalez et al. (2003) Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 53:1261-1269. (Click on it to see a larger version in a new window.)