Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various highly motile, aerobic bacteria of the genus Zoogloea found especially in wastewater, where the cells aggregate into flocculent, gelatinous masses.
- noun A mass of such bacteria or other bacteria.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology A
colony ormass ofbacteria embedded in aviscous gelatinous substance, characteristic of atransitory stage through which rapidly multiplying bacteria pass in the course of theirevolution .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Such masses are called zoogloea, and their general appearance serves as one of the characters for distinguishing different species of bacteria
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But -- with the exception of the dense masses which are known as zoogloea or bacteria, fused together in living glue -- the whole field was teeming with action; each minute organism gyrating in its own path, and darting at every visible point.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 470, January 3, 1885 Various
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When these dense "swarms" of vegetative cells become fixed in a matrix of their own swollen contiguous cell-walls, they pass over into a sort of resting state as a so-called zoogloea (fig. 3).
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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In very well marked cases of gelatinisation of the cell wall, the individual cells are cemented together in a coherent mass, to which the term "zoogloea" is applied (e. g.,
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If the zoogloea is formed on a solid substratum it may become firm and horny; immersion in water softens it as described above.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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Under favourable conditions the elements in the zoogloea again become active, and move out of the matrix, distribute themselves in the surrounding medium, to grow and multiply as before.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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Egg-shaped mass of zoogloea of _Beggiatoa roseo-persicina_ (_Bacterium rubescens_ of Lankester); the gelatinous swollen walls of the large crowded cocci are fused into a common gelatinous envelope.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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Branched fruticose zoogloea of _Cladothrix_ (slightly magnified).
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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Schizomycetes is the formation of this zoogloea stage, which corresponds to the "palmella" condition of the lower _Algae_.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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These enter the root-hairs of leguminous plants, and passing down the hair in the form of a long, slimy (zoogloea) thread, penetrate the tissues of the root.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
qroqqa commented on the word zoogloea
I recall from visits made to water-treatment plants in my student days that the passage of water through a filter leads to the build-up of a zoogloea – a translucent jelly-like layer of organic matter.
—New Scientist, 28 June 2008
July 16, 2008