The ''Aurantimonadaceae'' are a small family of

marine bacteria Marine prokaryotes are marine bacteria and marine archaea. They are defined by their habitat as prokaryotes that live in marine environments, that is, in the saltwater of seas or oceans or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. All cellular ...

Notable Species

Aurantimonas coralicida ''Aurantimonas coralicida'' is a gram-negative bacterium, and a causative agent of white plague in Caribbean corals. It is rod-shaped, with polar flagella. Description An obligate aerobe, ''A. coralicida'' obtains its nourishment chemohetero ...

'' causes a white plague in

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

s. ''

Fulvimarina pelagi ''Fulvimarina pelagi'' is a Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile bacteria from the genus of Fulvimarina which was isolated from sea water from the western Sargasso Sea.Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen The Leibni ...

'' was isolated from seawater, and takes the form of nonmotile rods. ''Fulvimarina pelagi'' is an obligate aerobe, and obtains its nourishment

chemoheterotroph A Chemotroph is an organism that obtains energy by the oxidation of electron donors in their environments. These molecules can be organic molecule, organic (chemoorganotrophs) or inorganic compound, inorganic (chemolithotrophs). The chemotroph de ...

ically. It tests positive for

oxidase In biochemistry, an oxidase is an enzyme that catalyzes oxidation-reduction reactions, especially one involving dioxygen (O2) as the electron acceptor. In reactions involving donation of a hydrogen atom, oxygen is reduced to water (H2O) or hydro ...

and

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 ...

, and contains

carotenoid Carotenoids (), also called tetraterpenoids, are yellow, orange, and red organic compound, organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, and Fungus, fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpki ...

pigments, possibly to protect against solar radiation.

Etymology

The name ''Aurantimonas'' derives from:

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 ...

''aurantus'', orange-coloured;

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 ...

''monas'' (μονάς), a unit; to mean an orange-coloured unicellular organism. Members of the genus ''Aurantimonas'' can be referred to as aurantimonads (''viz.'' trivialisation of names).

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the

List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) is an online database that maintains information on the naming and taxonomy of prokaryotes, following the taxonomy requirements and rulings of the International Code of Nomenclature ...

(LPSN). The phylogeny is based on whole-genome analysis.

References

Hyphomicrobiales {{Hyphomicrobiales-stub