ABSTRACT
A major source of interest in Bdellovibrio has been its usefulness as a model of bacterial adaptation to an intracellular environment. In particular, one of the most studied set of these adaptations involves specific, developmentally expressed modifications that are brought about in the structure and function of both the bdellovibrio’s and the invaded cell’s envelope. The common, unifying characteristic of all the bdellovibrios is the presence of a developmental life cycle in which growth and proliferation is confined to the period of residence within another bacterial cell. The free-living or attack-phase bdellovibrio cell is a small, highly motile bacterium with a single, polar, sheathed flagellum. A biologically significant and baffling characteristic of Bdellovibrio as an intracellular organism is the broad range of Gram-negative bacteria that it can attack, differentiate within, and grow upon. The possible importance of such unusual stability and hydrophobic properties on the ability of bdellovibrio to successfully attack and enter another cell has yet to be explored.
