Defining the Pseudomonas Genus: Where Do We Draw the Line with Azotobacter?

The genus Pseudomonas has gone through many taxonomic revisions over the past 100 years, going from a very large and diverse group of bacteria to a smaller, more refined and ordered list having specific properties. The relationship of the Pseudomonas genus to Azotobacter vinelandii is examined using...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbial ecology 2012-02, Vol.63 (2), p.239-248
Main Authors: Özen, Asli I., Ussery, David W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acinetobacter
Acinetobacter baumannii
Azotobacter
Azotobacter vinelandii
Azotobacter vinelandii - classification
Azotobacter vinelandii - genetics
Biological and medical sciences
Biological taxonomies
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cellvibrio - classification
Cellvibrio - genetics
Ecology
Evolution, Molecular
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gammaproteobacteria - classification
Gammaproteobacteria - genetics
Genome, Bacterial
Genomes
Geoecology/Natural Processes
Life Sciences
Microbial Ecology
Microbiology
MINIREVIEWS
Nature Conservation
Phylogeny
Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas - classification
Pseudomonas - genetics
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pseudomonas fluorescens
Pseudomonas putida
Pseudomonas syringae
Psychrobacter
RNA, Bacterial - genetics
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
Water Quality/Water Pollution
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Summary:The genus Pseudomonas has gone through many taxonomic revisions over the past 100 years, going from a very large and diverse group of bacteria to a smaller, more refined and ordered list having specific properties. The relationship of the Pseudomonas genus to Azotobacter vinelandii is examined using three genomic sequence-based methods. First, using 16S rRNA trees, it is shown that A. vinelandii groups within the Pseudomonas close to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Genomes from other related organisms (Acinetobacter, Psychrobacter, and Cellvibrio) are outside the Pseudomonas cluster. Second, pan genome family trees based on conserved gene families also show A. vinelandii to be more closely related to Pseudomonas than other related organisms. Third, exhaustive BLAST comparisons demonstrate that the fraction of shared genes between A. vinelandii and Pseudomonas genomes is similar to that of Pseudomonas species with each other. The results of these different methods point to a high similarity between A. vinelandii and the Pseudomonas genus, suggesting that Azotobacter might actually be a Pseudomonas.
ISSN:0095-3628
1432-184X
DOI:10.1007/s00248-011-9914-8