Many species are pleomorphic, meaning they can alter their biological function, morphology, or mode of reproduction in response to environmental conditions.
All bacteria in the Cytophagales are chemoorganotrophs and many of them are able to degrade complex biomacromolecules such as proteins, chitin, pectin, agar, starch, or cellulose.
Members of the order Cytophagales are organotrophs, producing hydrolytic enzymes that degrade various biopolymers such as chitin, pectin, starch, agar, and cellulose.
Cytophagales species likely play a large role in turnover of organic carbon in nature, as they are found in high quantities in oceanic, freshwater, soil, and even sea-ice environments.
[12] In glacial stream water that had been supplemented in allochthonous organic material, Cytophaga-Flavobacteria populations increased six- to eight-fold.
[10] Aerobic cellulose degrading Cytophaga bacteria have been identified on fishing nets made from cotton or hemp used by Japanese fishermen.
Flexirubin has conjugated double bonds that absorb light and hydroxyphenyl in the chromophore, which give the bacteria their characteristic colour- yellow under neutral pH and red under alkaline conditions.
[21] Flexirubin-type pigments are also currently being assessed by the scientific community for their potential for therapeutic uses and applicability in the food and textile industry.
In aquatic systems they are commonly present in near-shore freshwater bodies, estuaries, aerobic sediments, and dense algal mats.
[4] Members of the Cytophagales are also known to be found in large abundance in the ice and coastal pelagic waters of Antarctica, contributing up to 70% of bacterial biomass.
This cycling process allows the transfer and use of biologically important nutrients across different trophic levels found within the aquatic system.
For example, bacteria in the genus Achromobacter contribute to the relationship through the production of β-glucosidase which can be used by Cytophagales microbes to hydrolyze cellodextrin into glucose and prevent the feedback inhibition that would otherwise occur with the accumulation of cellobiose.
Heterotrophic bacteria are crucial in the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the ocean, which affects the global carbon budget.
However, clone library abundance estimates from 16S rRNA genes from free-living bacterial assemblages show different results.
[25] Its approximate phylogenetic position was determined in 1985 through 16s rRNA studies, but other experiments have shown that Cytophagales' exact taxonomy is still currently hard to pinpoint.
[4] The genera Bernardetia, Hugenholtzia, Garritya, and Eisenibacter are on separate branches within the Cytophagales based on methods such as 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenomic analysis, as well as physiological and morphological data.
Genera in the Cytophagales comprise Cytophaga, Flexibacter, Sporocytophaga, Sphaero-cytophagal, Capnocytophaga, Microscilla, and Lysobacter, as well as others included in the taxonomic list below.
Most recently the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes: Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Aerobic Bacteroidetes met to discuss taxonomic changes in 2017.
Cesiribacteraceae; Fulvivirgaceae; Mangrovivirgaceae; Marinoscillaceae; Marivirgaceae; Persicobacteraceae; Reichenbachiellaceae; Roseivirgaceae) Cytophagaceae Microscillaceae Thermonemataceae (incl.