The 1st EMBO workshop on PVC bacteria—Planctomycetes–Verrucomicrobia–Chlamydiae superphylum: Exceptions to the bacterial definition?

Abstract

The PVC superphylum is a phylogenetically supported collection of various related bacterial phyla that comprise unusual characteristics and traits. The 'PVC' abbreviation derives from Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobia and Chlamydiae as members of this superphylum, while additional bacterial phyla are related. There has recently been increasing and exciting interest in the cell biology, physiology and ecology of members of this superphylum, including evolutionary implications of the complex cell organization of some species. It is timely that international researchers in the PVC superphylum field met to discuss these developments. The first meeting entirely dedicated to those bacteria, the EMBO workshop ''PVC superphylum: Exceptions to the bacterial definition'' was held at the Heidelberg University to catalyze the formation of a vital scientific community supporting PVC-bacterial research. More than 45 investigators from more than 20 countries (PIs, senior scientists and students) attended the meeting and produced a great starting point for future collaborative research. This Special Issue will focus on the EMBO-PVC meeting. This Perspective briefly summarizes the history of PVC-research, focusing on the key findings and provides a brief summary of the meeting with a focus on the major questions that arose during discussion and that might influence the research in the years to come.

Planctomycetes do possess a peptidoglycan cell wall

“…Planctomycetes belong together with Verrucomicrobia and Chlamydiae to the PVC superphylum 32 , an unusual group of bacteria that comprise several exceptional traits 33 . Besides Chlamydiae 19 , Planctomycetes and certain Verrucomicrobia (for example ref.…”

Rubinisphaera italica sp. nov. isolated from a hydrothermal area in the Tyrrhenian Sea close to the volcanic island Panarea

“…Together with Verrucomicrobia, Lentisphaerae, Kirimatiellaeota and Chlamydiae, Planctomycetes form the medically and biotechnologically relevant PVC superphylum (Spring et al 2016;Wagner and Horn 2006;Devos and Ward 2014). In the past, Planctomycetes were postulated as the missing link between bacteria and eukaryotes (Devos and Reynaud 2010) beyond the bacterial cell plan (Devos et al 2013;Fuerst and Sagulenko 2011). This finding was based on proposed exceptional planctomycetal features, such as, lack of peptidoglycan (König et al 1984), a compartmentalised cell plan (Lindsay et al 1997), a nucleus-like structure (Fuerst and Webb 1991) and performance of endocytosis (Lonhienne et al 2010).…”

The Paradigms They Are a-Changin’: past, present and future of PVC bacteria research

“…At the same time, 2013, the first conference solely dedicated to the PVC superphylum took place. A journal special issue reporting papers from this first workshop was put together (Devos et al 2013 ). Since then, the PVC community has met every other year and another journal research topic, this time on the PVC superphylum, has been published (van Niftrik and Devos 2017 ).…”