''Nisaea'' is a genus in the phylum

Pseudomonadota Pseudomonadota (synonym Proteobacteria) is a major phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. The renaming of phyla in 2021 remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earlier names of long standing in the literature. The ...

(

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 ...

), which contains two species, namely '' N. denitrificans'' and '' N. nitritireducens'', which were described in 2008.

Description

Like all Proteobacteria the two species stain

Gram-negative Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. They are characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall ...

.(,''cf''.Bergey) They were isolated from coastal, surface waters of the north-western

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

, specifically in February 2004 at the SOLA station located in the bay of Banyuls-sur-Mer (42 2.99 N 3 0.89 E) at a depth of 3 metres. The cells are motile pleomorphic rods that are 2.9 μm long and 0.9 μm wide. When grown on marine agar medium, they form cream colonies (i.e. no pigmentation). Apart from standard genetic differences for species (98% 16S, 55% DNA-DNA), the two species differ in that Nisaea denitrificans can fully denitrify whereas Nisaea nitritireducens cannot only reduce nitrite.

Etymology

The name ''Nisaea'' derives from:

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

feminine gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...

noun ''Nisaea'', nymph of the sea, referring to the marine origin (Mediterranean sea).

Nicaea Nicaea, also known as Nicea or Nikaia (; ; grc-gre, Νίκαια, ) was an ancient Greek city in Bithynia, where located in northwestern Anatolia and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...

is in fact a sea nymph and daughter of the river-god

Sangarius The Sakarya (Sakara River, tr, Sakarya Irmağı; gr, Σαγγάριος, translit=Sangarios; Latin: ''Sangarius'') is the third longest river in Turkey. It runs through the region known in ancient times as Phrygia. It was considered one of t ...

and Cybele. Whereas the specific epithets, refer to: * ''denitrificans'': New Latin participle adjective ''denitrificans'' (from New Latin v. denitrifico), denitrifying. * ''nitritireducens'': New Latin noun ''nitris'' -''itis'', nitrite;

participle adjective ''reducens'', leading back, bringing back and (in chemistry) converting to a different oxidation state; New Latin participle adjective ''nitritireducens'', reducing nitrite.

References

Bacteria genera Rhodospirillales {{Alphaproteobacteria-stub

Description

Etymology

See also

References