The complex life-cycle of a polymorphic prokaryote epibiont of the photosynthetic bacterium Chromatium weissei

In natural populations of the anaerobic phototrophic bacterium Chromatium weissei, many cells support a prokaryotic epibiont. This epibiont appears in several forms, all from the life cycle of a single species. A typical epibiont consists of one to five flattened coccoid cells stacked one above the other, perpendicular to the C. weissei surface. The cells at the proximal and distal ends of the stack are 0.6 μm in diameter and 0.8 μm in length; mid-stack cells are slightly shorter. A typical three or four cell stack is 2 μm in length. Small mesosome-like inclusions in the distal cell are involved in the development of ‘droplet’ shaped cells which are released from the end of each stack. Thes…