Abiotrophia is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of lactic acid bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria

The lactic acid bacteria comprise a clade of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce...

, a family in the phylum Firmicutes

Firmicutes

The Firmicutes are a phylum of bacteria, most of which have Gram-positive cell wall structure. A few, however, such as Megasphaera, Pectinatus, Selenomonas and Zymophilus, have a porous pseudo-outer-membrane that causes them to stain Gram-negative...

 (Bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

).

Species

The genus contains 4 species of coccus shaped species, 2 are former members of the genus Streptococcus

Streptococcus

Streptococcus is a genus of spherical Gram-positive bacteria belonging to the phylum Firmicutes and the lactic acid bacteria group. Cellular division occurs along a single axis in these bacteria, and thus they grow in chains or pairs, hence the name — from Greek στρεπτος streptos, meaning...

, which were transferred in 1995 to the newly coined genus Abiotrophia:

• A. adiacens ( (Bouvet et al. 1989) Kawamura et al. 1995; Latin
  Latin
  Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
  
   feminine gender
  Grammatical gender
  Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
  
   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
  Latin
  Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
  
   feminine gender
  Grammatical gender
  Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
  
   adjective defectiva, deficient.)

Other 2 are latter additions:

• A. balaenopterae ( Lawson et al. 1999; New Latin
  New Latin
  The term New Latin, or Neo-Latin, is used to describe the Latin language used in original works created between c. 1500 and c. 1900. Among other uses, Latin during this period was employed in scholarly and scientific publications...
  
   genitive case
  Latin declension
  Latin is an inflected language, and as such has nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five declensions, which are numbered and grouped by ending and...
  
   noun balaenopterae, pertaining to the minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, from which the organism was isolated.)
• A. elegans ( Roggenkamp et al. 1999; Latin
  Latin
  Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
  
   feminine gender
  Grammatical gender
  Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
  
   adjective elegans, choice, nice, elegant.)

Etymology

The name Abiotrophia derives from:
Greek prefix ἄ (a)-, negative (un-); Greek noun βιος (bios), life; Greek noun τροφιά (trophia), nutrition; New Latin

New Latin

The term New Latin, or Neo-Latin, is used to describe the Latin language used in original works created between c. 1500 and c. 1900. Among other uses, Latin during this period was employed in scholarly and scientific publications...

 feminine gender

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

noun Abiotrophia, life-nutrition-deficiency.

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 or 37.0%

Disease

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

External links

• http://www.dsmz.de/microorganisms/bacterial_nomenclature_info.php?genus=ABIOTROPHIA
• http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/a/abiotrophia.html http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/bacdico/aa/abiotrophia.html