Abiotrophia

Abiotrophia is a genus of lactic acid bacteria, a family in the phylum Bacillota (Bacteria).

Abiotrophia
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Kingdom:	Bacillati
Phylum:	Bacillota
Class:	Bacilli
Order:	Lactobacillales
Family:	Aerococcaceae
Genus:	Abiotrophia Y. Kawamura et al. 1995[1]
Type species
Abiotrophia defectiva
Species
See text

Species

The genus contains 4 species of coccus shaped species,^[2] 2 are former members of the genus Streptococcus, which were transferred in 1995 to the newly coined genus Abiotrophia:^[1]

• A. adiacens ( (Bouvet et al. 1989) Kawamura et al. 1995; Latin feminine gender adjective adiacens, adjacent, indicating that this organism can grow as satellite colonies adjacent to other bacterial growth.)
• A. defectiva ( (Bouvet et al. 1989) Kawamura et al. 1995, comb. nov. (Type species of the genus).; Latin feminine gender adjective defectiva, deficient.)^[3]

Other 2 are latter additions:

• A. balaenopterae ( Lawson et al. 1999; Neo-Latin genitive case noun balaenopterae, pertaining to the minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, from which the organism was isolated.)^[4]
• A. elegans ( Roggenkamp et al. 1999; Latin feminine gender adjective elegans, choice, nice, elegant.)^[5] Abiotrophia elegans was reclassified to Granulicatella elegans.^[6]

In 2000, Collins and Lawsons further differentiated A. adiacens, A. balaenopterae and A. elegans from A. defectiva by placing them into the new genus Granulicatella.^[7]

Etymology

See also: Bacterial taxonomy

The name Abiotrophia derives from: Greek prefix ἄ (a)-, negative (un-); Greek noun βιος (bios), life; Greek noun τροφιά (trophia), nutrition; Neo-Latin feminine gender noun Abiotrophia, life-nutrition-deficiency.^[2]

Genome Sequence

For the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), the genome of Abiotrophia defectiva ATCC 49176 has been sequenced (assembly) as it is a resident of human oral cavity and urogenital and intestinal tracts and is a cause of infective endocarditis, showing it to have 3291 protein encoded in a 3.4774 Mbp genome with a GC content of 37.0% ^[8]

Disease

Formerly classified as nutritionally variant streptococci, A. elegans had been identified as a cause of 1 to 2% of blood culture negative bacterial infective endocarditis.^[9]