Acidobacteria is found in soil, decomposing wood, hot springs, oceans, caves, and metal-contaminated soils as well as a variety of other environments.
The members of this phylum are particularly abundant in soil habitats representing up to 52% of the total bacterial community.
Like most Acidobacteria, the bacterium is rod-shaped that measures between 1 and 3 um in length and 0.5 to 0.7 um in diameter.
Based on microscopic studies, the cells have been shown to be non-motile (the cells do not have flagella for locomotion).
The vast majority of isolates cultivated to date are affiliated with acidobacteria subdivision 1 (Class Acidobacteriia).
They are all heterotrophic, most species are aerobic or microaerophilic and some species (Telmatobacter bradus, Acidobacterium capsulatum) are facultative anaerobic bacteria (Pankratov et al., 2012).
The polymer degrading properties reveal acidobacteria as decomposers in the soil that potentially participate in the cycling of plant, fungal and insect derived organic matters.
Acidobacteriota is a phylum of Gram-negative bacteria.
It's members are physiologically diverse and ubiquitous, especially in soils, but are under-represented in culture.
Significant ecological functions have been reported in forest soil for Acidobacteria members (García-Fraile et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2016).
Acidobacteria members in plant-soil ecosystems play pivotal ecological roles, including modulation of biogeochemical cycles and influencing plant growth.
Acidobacterium capsulatum was originally described as an aerobic bacteria, but later it was demonstrated a weak anaerobic growth by fermentation.