Alteromonas


Alteromonas is a genus of Pseudomonadota found in sea water, either in the open ocean or in the coast. It is Gram-negative. Its cells are curved rods with a single polar flagellum.

Etymology

The etymology of the genus is Latin alter -tera -terum, another, different; monas (μονάς), a noun with a special meaning in microbiology used to mean unicellular organism; to give Alteromonas, another monad
Members of the genus Alteromonas can be referred to as alteromonads.

Authority

The genus was described by Baumann et al. in 1972, but was emended by Novick and Tyler 1985 to accommodate Alteromonas luteoviolacea, Gauthier et al. 1995, who split the genus in two and Van Trappen et al. in 2004 to accommodate Alteromonas stellipolaris.

Shipworm symbiont

"Alteromonas-like sub-group" has been identified by microbial culture, metagenomics, and FISH-probe microscopy in the typhlosole sub-organ of the shipworm cecum as a symbiont digesting lignin.

Species

The genus contains eight species, namely
Many alteromonads were reclassified as members of Pseudoalteromonas in 1995
Other former alteromonads: