''Aerococcus'' is a genus in the phylum

Bacillota The Bacillota (synonym Firmicutes) are a phylum of bacteria, most of which have gram-positive cell wall structure. The renaming of phyla such as Firmicutes in 2021 remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earl ...

(

Bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

). The genus was first identified in 1953 from samples of air and dust as a

catalase Catalase is a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms exposed to oxygen (such as bacteria, plants, and animals) which catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen. It is a very important enzyme in protecting t ...

-negative,

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

-positive

coccus A coccus (plural cocci) is any bacterium or archaeon that has a spherical, ovoid, or generally round shape. Bacteria are categorized based on their shapes into three classes: cocci (spherical-shaped), bacillus (rod-shaped) and spiral ( of whi ...

that grew in small clusters. They were subsequently found in hospital environments and meat-curing brines. It has been difficult to identify as it resembles alpha-hemolytic ''Streptococcus'' on

blood agar plates An agar plate is a Petri dish that contains a growth medium solidified with agar, used to Microbiological culture, culture microorganisms. Sometimes selective compounds are added to influence growth, such as antibiotics. Individual microorganism ...

and is difficult to identify by biochemical means. Sequencing of

16S rRNA 16S rRNA may refer to: * 16S ribosomal RNA 16 S ribosomal RNA (or 16 S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome ( SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The g ...

has become the gold standard for identification, but other techniques such as

MALDI-TOF In mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is an ionization technique that uses a laser energy absorbing matrix to create ions from large molecules with minimal fragmentation. It has been applied to the analysis of b ...

have also been useful for identifying both the genus and species.

Etymology

The name ''Aerococcus'' derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''aer, aeros'' (ἀήρ, ἀέρος), air;

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

''coccus'' (from Greek''kokkos'' (κόκκος)), a berry; New Latin ''Aerococcus'', air coccus. The name was given based on its round shape and that it was first discovered in air samples.

Species

The genus contains these species: * '' A. christensenii'' Collins ''et al.'', 1999, named after the Danish microbiologist Jens J. Christensen * '' A. sanguinicola'' Lawson ''et al.'', 2001 (from the Latin for blood-dweller) * '' A. suis'' Vela ''et al.'', 2007 (Latin for "of a hog") * '' A. urinae'' Aguirre & Collins, 1992 (Latin for "of urine") * '' A. urinaeequi'' (Garvie, 1988) Felis ''et al.'', 2005 (Latin for "of the urine of a horse", source of isolation of the type strain) * '' A. urinaehominis'' Lawson ''et al.'', 2001 (Latin for "of the urine of a human", source of isolation of the type strain) * '' A. viridans'' Williams ''et al.'', 1953 –

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus (Latin for "making green", producing a green color). Causative agent of

gaffkaemia Gaffkaemia (gaffkemia in American English) is a bacterial disease of lobsters, caused by the Gram-positive lactic acid bacterium ''Aerococcus viridans'' var. ''homari''. Discovery Gaffkaemia was first discovered in 1947 in American lobsters (''H ...

, a disease of

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

References

Bacteria genera Lactobacillales {{Lactobacilli-stub

Etymology

Species

See also

References