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The Genus Acinetobacter

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

Members of the genus Acinetobacter have previously been classified by various authors under a variety of different names (reviewed by Henriksen, 1973), and, consequently, much of the early literature concerning this group of organisms is difficult to interpret owing to confusion over nomenclature and the lack of a widely accepted classification scheme. The genus Acinetobacter originally proposed by Brisou and Prévot (1954) included a heterogenous collection of nonmotile Gram-negative saprophytes that could be distinguished from other similar bacteria by their lack of pigmentation (Ingram and Shewan, 1960). The Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Moraxella and Allied Bacteria subsequently proposed (Lessel, 1971) that the genus Acinetobacter should include only the oxidasenegative strains. This division has been supported by the use of transformation tests (Juni, 1972), which now forms the basis for inclusion in the genus. Acinetobacter is classified in the family Neisseriaceae, and the current generic description (Juni, 1984) allows unambiguous identification of strains to the genus level.

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  1. Kevin J. Towner
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emory University, 105 Bay Colt Road, 30201, Alpharetta, GA, USA

    Albert Balows

  2. Institute for Microbiology, University of Bonn, D-5300, Bonn 1, Germany

    Hans G. Trüper

  3. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Martin Dworkin

  4. TNO Institute of Environmental Sciences, 2600 AE, Delft, The Netherlands

    Wim Harder

  5. Department of Microbiology, Technical University, D-8000, Munich 2, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

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Towner, K.J. (1992). The Genus Acinetobacter . In: Balows, A., Trüper, H.G., Dworkin, M., Harder, W., Schleifer, KH. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2191-1_2

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