Alteromonas

The etymology of the genus is Latin alter -tera -terum, another, different; monas (μονάς), a noun with a special meaning in microbiology used to mean unicellular organism; to give Alteromonas, another monad[2]

Members of the genus Alteromonas can be referred to as alteromonads (viz. Trivialisation of names).

The genus was described by Baumann et al. in 1972,[3] but was emended by Novick and Tyler 1985 to accommodate Alteromonas luteoviolacea (now Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea),[4] Gauthier et al. 1995, who split the genus in two (Pseudoalteromonas)[5] and Van Trappen et al. in 2004 to accommodate Alteromonas stellipolaris.[6]

The genus contains eight species (but 21 basonyms), namely[2]

• A. addita (Ivanova et al. 2005, added, joined to the genus)
• A. genovensis ( Vandecandelaere et al. 2008, genovensis, pertaining to Genova (Genoa), Italy, where the seawater electroactive biofilms originated)[7]
• A. hispanica ( Martínez-Checa et 'al. 2005, hispanica, Spanish)
• A. litorea ( Yoon et al.. 2004, litorea, of the shore)
• A. macleodii ( Baumann et al. 1972 (type species of the genus, named after R.A. MacLeod, a Canadian microbiologist who pioneered studies on the biochemical bases of the Na⁺ requirement of marine bacteria)[7]
• A. marina ( Yoon et al.. 2003, marina, of the sea, marine)
• A. simiduii ( Chiu et al.. 2007, named after Usio Simidu, a Japanese microbiologist, for his work on marine microbiology)[8]
• A. stellipolaris ( Van Trappen et al.. 2004, stella, star; polaris, polar, referring to the Polarstern (AWI, Bremerhaven), the name of the vessel that was used to collect the sample from which the organisms were isolated)[9]
• A. tagae ( Chiu et al.. 2007, named after Nobuo Taga, a pioneering Japanese marine microbiologist)[8]

Many alteromonads were reclassified as members of Pseudoalteromonas in 1995[5]

• P. atlantica (Akagawa-Matsushita et al.. 1992, atlantica, pertaining to the Atlantic Ocean)[10]
• P. aurantia (Gauthier and Breittmayer 1979, aurantia, orange-colored)[11]
• P. carrageenovora (Akagawa-Matsushita et al.. 1992, carrageenum, named for carrageenan; vorare, to devour - carrageenan decomposing)[10]
• P. citrea (Gauthier 1977, citrea, of or pertaining to the citrus-tree, intended to mean lemon-yellow)[11]
• P. denitrificans (Enger et al.. 1987, denitrificans, denitrifying)[12]
• P. distincta (Romanenko et al. 1995, distincta, separate, distinct)[13]
• P. elyakovii (Ivanova et al.. 1997, named after G.B. Elyakov for his work in microbial biotechnology)[14]
• P. espejiana (Chan et al.. 1978, named after Espejo, a Chilean microbiologist who isolated one of the first lipid-containing bacteriophages)[11]
• P. fuliginea (Romanenko et al.. 1995, fuliginea, like soot, sooty)[13]
• P. haloplanktis ((ZoBell and Upham 1944) Reichelt and Baumann 1973, hals halos, sea; planktos -ê -on, wandering, roaming, sea-wandering)[11]
• P. luteoviolacea ((ex Gauthier 1976) Gauthier 1982, luteus, yellow; violaceus - violet-colored; luteoviolacea, yellow-violet)[15]
• P. nigrifaciens ((ex White 1940) Baumann et al. 1984, Niger, black; facio, to make to give nigrifaciens, making black)[16]
• P. rubra (Gauthier 1976, rubra, red)[11]
• P. tetraodonis (Simidu et al.. 1990, tetraodonis, of Tetraodon, a genus of plectognathic fishes [Tetraodontidae])[17]
• P. undina (Chan et al.. 1978, undina, undine, water nymph)[11]

Other former alteromonads:

• Marinomonas communis (Baumann et al.. 1972, communis, common)[11]
• Marinomonas vaga (Baumann et al.. 1972, vaga, wandering)[11]
• Shewanella colwelliana (Weiner et al.. 1988, named after Rita Colwell for her contributions to marine microbiology)[18]
• Shewanella hanedai (Jensen et al.. 1981, named after Y. Haneda, a Japanese biologist who pioneered studies on bioluminescence)[19]
• Shewanella putrefaciens ((ex Derby and Hammer 1931) Lee et al.. 1981, putrefaciens, making rotten, putrefying)[20]

• Cancerweb's entry