A genus of photosynthetic bacteria containing purple sulfur bacteria that produce energy from light and sulfur.
From Greek 'chroma' (color) + Latin '-ium' (element/genus naming suffix). Named in 19th-century microbiology for the colored pigments these bacteria contain.
Chromatium bacteria are purple because they contain bacteriochlorophyll instead of the green chlorophyll in plants—they represent an ancient branch of photosynthesis that thrived in Earth's early history before oxygen appeared.
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