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The general characteristics of campylobacters and related organisms (e.g., species of the genera Helicobacter and Wolinella, Bacteroides ureolyticus, and Bacteroides gracilis) are as follows: slender, non-sporeforming, gram-negative, vibroid bacteria (helical- or spiral- shpaed; except that B. ureolyticus and B. gracilis are straight-rod), 0.2-0.5 .mu.m in width and 0.5 .mu.m in length. (Smibert, 1984; Penner, 1988). The species of genus Campylobacter and related organisms are chemoorganotrophs; however, they neither oxidize nor ferment carbohydrates and instead obtain energy from amino acids, the salts of tricarboxylic acids (TCA) cycle intermediates, the salts of organic acids, or, in some species, H2/. With regard to their oxygen responses for growth, they all are microaeophilic i.e., they are capable of oxygen-dependent growth (respiring with oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor) but can not grow in the presence of a level of oxygen equivalent to that present in an air atmosphere (21% oxygen). This review will take interests in how these microorganisms response to oxygen for growth and what repiratory types they have.
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