Definition of spirillum in English:
spirillum
nounPlural spirillaspʌɪˈrɪləmspaɪˈrɪləm
A bacterium with a rigid spiral structure, found in stagnant water and sometimes causing disease.
Genus Spirillum; Gram-negative
Example sentencesExamples
- These very long, spiraled nascent bdellovibrio were proposed earlier from electron microscope images to be common in spirilla, which are long and coiled themselves.
- The retention of the normal shape that we observed may be caused by steric restrictions on a major change in shape and size by neighboring spirilla and bdellovibrios.
- Possibly it is a true spirillum, portions of which appear in the comma shape, much as in other spirilla - e.g., spirilla undula, which do not always form complete spirals, but consist only of more or less curved rods.
Origin
Modern Latin, irregular diminutive of Latin spira 'a coil'.