The genus Alishewanella is one of the major branches of the family Alteromonadaceae. It was proposed to accommodate A. fetalis, isolated from an autopsy of a human fetus, in 2000.[2] In 2009, A. aestuarii was isolated from tidal flat sediment and indicated as being a representative of Alishewanella.[3] The third Alishewanella species was isolated from gajami sikhae, a Korean fermented food, in 2009 and was given the name A. jeotgali.[2] Most recently, in 2010, the fourth currently isolated species of Alishewanella, A. agri, was isolated from landfill soil in Korea.[4] Currently these are the only four isolated and characterized species of the genus Alishewanella.

Alishewanella fetalis
A. fetalis grown on a BHI agar plate visualized by transmission electron microscopy
Scientific classification
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Genus:
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A. fetalis
Binomial name
Alishewanella fetalis
Fonnesbech Vogel et al. 2000[1]

Identification

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Alishewanella fetalis is a Gram-negative, non-motile, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium. These rods are about 2 μm in length and 0.5-1 μm in width. They typically occur as a single cell.[5] It was initially mislabelled as Shewanella putrefaciens, previously known as Pseudomonas putrefaciens, due to the presence of similar fatty acids[5] in its membrane lipids. However, after further evaluation, it was found that this was a novel species. Due to the relatedness to Shewanella, the genus was named Alishewanella. Also, having been initially isolated from an autopsy of a human fetus in 1992 in Sweden, it was given the species name fetalis.[5]

Growth

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A. fetalis grows at temperatures between 25° and 42 °C, with optimum growth at 37 °C. It cannot grow below 20 °C.[5] It is facultatively anaerobic and can utilize electron acceptors such as trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), nitrate, nitrite, and thiosulphate, but not sulphite or ferric iron.[6] It is not only halotolerant, but requires NaCl for growth. NaCl concentrations of up to 8%, but not 10% are tolerated.[5] A. fetalis is oxidase- and catalase-positive but does not produce indole and β-galactosidase. It cannot ferment carbohydrates.[5] By these results, A. fetalis is very closely related to both Shewanella putrefaciens and Shewanella algae.[5] However, A. fetalis differs from the Shewanella genus by the ability to produce H2S.[5]

Genome

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Studies of A. fetalis show that the GC content of the genome is 50.6%,[6] which differs greatly from that of Shewanella putrefaciens, with a GC content of 42-47%.[5] It shows a relationship to both Rheinheimara baltica through 16S rRNA,[6] and to the family Vibrionaceae through gyrase B.[5] With regards to other Alishewanella species, A. fetalis is closely related to Alishewanella jeotgali (98.04%),[2] Alishewanella aestuarii (98.3%),[3] and Alishewanella agri (98.7%)[4] by 16S rRNA.

References

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  1. ^ Parte, A.C. "Alishewanella". LPSN.
  2. ^ a b c Min-Soo Kim; Seong Woon Roh; Young-Do Nam; Ho-Won Chang; Kyoung-Ho Kim; Mi-Ja Jung; Jung-Hye Choi; Eun-Jin Park; Jin-Woo Bae (2009). "Alishewanella jeotgali sp. nov., isolated from traditional fermented food, and emended description of the genus Alishewanella". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 59 (9): 2313–2316. doi:10.1099/ijs.0.007260-0. PMID 19620373.
  3. ^ a b Seong Woon Roh; Young-Do Nam; Ho-Won Chang; Kyoung-Ho Kim; Min-Soo Kim; Hee-Mock Oh; Jin-Woo Bae (2009). "Alishewanella aestuarii sp. nov., isolated from tidal flat sediment, and emended description of the genus Alishewanella". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 59 (2): 421–424. doi:10.1099/ijs.0.65643-0. PMID 19196789.
  4. ^ a b Kim, Min-Soo; Jo, Seon Kyung; Roh, Seong Woon; Bae, Jin-WooYR 2010. "Alishewanella agri sp. nov., isolated from landfill soil". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 60 (9): 2199–2203. doi:10.1099/ijs.0.011684-0. ISSN 1466-5034.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Birte Fonnesbech Vogel; Kasthuri Venkateswaran; Henrik Christensen; Enevold Falsen; Gunna Christiansen; Lone Gram (2000). "Polyphasic taxonomic approach in the description of Alishewanella fetalis gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a human foetus". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 50 (3): 1133–1142. doi:10.1099/00207713-50-3-1133. PMID 10843055.
  6. ^ a b c Brettar, Ingrid; Christen, Richard; Höfle, Manfred (2002). "Rheinheimera baltica gen. nov., sp. nov., a blue-coloured bacterium isolated from the central Baltic Sea". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 52 (5): 1851–1857. doi:10.1099/ijs.0.02151-0. Archived from the original on 2013-04-15.
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