''Azomonas'' species are typically motile, oval to spherical, and secrete large quantities of
capsular slime. They are distinguished from ''
Azotobacter
''Azotobacter'' is a genus of usually motile, oval or spherical bacteria that form thick-walled cysts (and also has hard crust) and may produce large quantities of capsular slime. They are aerobic, free-living soil microbes that play an impo ...
'' by their inability to form cysts, but like ''Azotobacter'', they can biologically fix nitrogen under aerobic conditions (
diazotroph Diazotrophs are bacteria and archaea that fix gaseous nitrogen in the atmosphere into a more usable form such as ammonia.
A diazotroph is a microorganism that is able to grow without external sources of fixed nitrogen. Examples of organisms that ...
s).
Bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...
of the genus ''Azomonas'' are known to form intracellular inclusions of
polyhydroxyalkanoates
Polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHAs are polyesters produced in nature by numerous microorganisms, including through bacterial fermentation of sugars or lipids. When produced by bacteria they serve as both a source of energy and as a carbon store. M ...
under certain environmental conditions (e.g. lack of elements such as phosphorus, nitrogen, or oxygen combined with an excessive supply of carbon sources).
Etymology
The name ''Azomonas'' 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 ...
noun ''azotum''
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__...
_prep._ά,_''a'',_not;_
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__...
_prep._ά,_''a'',_not;_Ancient_Greek_language">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__...
_noun_ζωή,_''zōē'',_life;_Greek_language.html" "title="Ancient_Greek_language.html" "title="Ancient_Greek_language.html" "title="rom Fr. noun ''azote'' (from Ancient Greek language">Greek