Anaerobiospirillum, a New Genus of Spiral-Shaped Bacteria

Abstract

Three strains of an anaerobic spiral-shaped bacterium that possessed tufts of bipolar flagella were isolated from beagle dogs. The organisms are gram negative and saccharolytic and produce mainly acetic and succinic acids from glucose. The cells of these strains do not contain spores or axial fibrils. The isolates do not fit any described genus or species of anaerobic spiral-shaped bacteria. The generic name Anaerobiospirillum gen. nov. is proposed for the isolates; at present, the genus contains only one species, the type species Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens sp. nov. A. succinciproducens strain S411 (= ATCC 29305) is designated as the type strain of the species. The guanine plus cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid of the type strain is 44 mol%.