''Rhodobium'' is a genus of

purple non-sulfur bacteria Purple bacteria or purple photosynthetic bacteria are Gram-negative proteobacteria that are phototrophic, capable of producing their own food via photosynthesis. They are pigmented with bacteriochlorophyll ''a'' or ''b'', together with various ...

. The cells are rod-shaped and reproduce by

budding Budding or blastogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction in which a new organism develops from an outgrowth or bud due to cell division at one particular site. For example, the small bulb-like projection coming out from the yeast cell is kno ...

, as in many other members of the

Hyphomicrobiales The ''Hyphomicrobiales'' are an order of Gram-negative Alphaproteobacteria. The rhizobia, which fix nitrogen and are symbiotic with plant roots, appear in several different families. The four families ''Nitrobacteraceae'', ''Hyphomicrobiaceae' ...

. RNA trees separate it from the others, however, and it is given its own family. ''R. orientis'', the type species, was isolated from seawater in 1995. It is capable of photosynthetic hydrogen production via the nitrogenase enzyme.

References

Hyphomicrobiales Bacteria genera {{Hyphomicrobiales-stub