Arthrobacter (from the Greek, "jointed small stick”) is a genus of bacteria that is commonly found in soil. Members of the genus have also been reported from insect-associated environments, suggesting ecological roles beyond soil habitats. All species in this genus are Gram-positive obligate aerobes that are rods during exponential growth and cocci in their stationary phase. Arthrobacter have a distinctive method of cell division called "snapping division" or reversion in which the outer bacterial cell wall ruptures at a joint.

Description

Arthrobacter can be grown on mineral salts pyridone broth, where colonies have a greenish metallic center on incubated at . Under the microscope, Arthrobacter appear as rods when rapidly dividing, and cocci when in stationary phase. Dividing cells may also appear as chevrons ("V" shapes). Other notable characteristics are that it can use pyridone as its sole carbon source, and that its cocci are resistant to desiccation and starvation.

Use in industry

Arthrobacter, like other bacterial genera including Brevibacterium, Microbacterium, and Corynebacterium are used for industrial production of L-glutamate. In industrial applications, Arthrobacter is often grown with low-cost sugar sources such as cane or beet molasses, starch hydrolysates from corn or cassava tubers, or tapioca. Along with sugar, ammonia and ammonium salts are added as a nitrogen source. The vitamins, minerals, and some other types of nutrients can be provided by adding corn steep liquour.

Other uses

Various Arthrobacter species have been investigated for other commercial applications. A. crystallopoietes and A. chlorophenolicus have been shown to reduce hexavalent chromium and 4-chlorophenol levels in contaminated soil, suggesting they may be useful for bioremediation. Similarly, Arthrobacter sp. strain R1 (American Type Culture Collection strain number 49987) has been shown to grow on a variety of aromatic compounds, including homocyclic compounds, such as hydroxybenzoates, as well as N-heterocycles, including pyridine and picoline.

thumb|Arthrobacter crystallopoietes produces a pigment when grown on 2-pyridone (right) but not when grown on succinic acid (left).

Arthrobacter sp. H65-7 produces the enzyme inulase II that converts inulin into the medically relevant nutrient difructose anhydride.

The enzyme Alu obtained from Arthrobacter luteus is able to cleave Alu sequences which is frequently repeated in human DNA.

Species

Arthrobacter comprises the following species:

  • A. agilis <small>(Ali-Cohen 1889) Koch et al. 1995</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter albidus was reclassified as Sinomonas albida. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter albus was reclassified as Pseudoglutamicibacter albus. -->

  • A. alkaliphilus <small>Ding et al. 2009</small>
  • A. alpinus <small>Zhang et al. 2010</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter antarcticus was reclassified as Paeniglutamicibacter antarcticus. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter ardleyensis was reclassified as Glutamicibacter ardleyensis. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter arilaitensis was reclassified as Glutamicibacter arilaitensis. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter atrocyaneus was reclassified as Sinomonas atrocyanea. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter aurescens was reclassified as Paenarthrobacter aurescens. -->

  • A. bambusae <small>Park et al. 2014</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter bergerei was reclassified as Glutamicibacter bergerei. -->

  • A. bussei <small>Flegler et al. 2020</small>
  • "A. casei" <small>Wenning et al. 2006</small>
  • A. castelli <small>Heyrman et al. 2005</small>
  • A. celericrescens <small>Yan et al. 2019</small>
  • A. cheniae <small>Yang et al. 2021</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter chlorophenolicus. -->

  • A. citreus <small>Sacks 1954 (Approved Lists 1980)</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter creatinolyticus was reclassified as Glutamicibacter creatinolyticus. -->

  • "A. crusticola" <small>Liu et al. 2020</small>
  • "A. crygenae" <small>Vasil'eva et al. 1998</small>
  • A. cryoconiti <small>Margesin et al. 2012</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter cryotolerans was reclassified as Paeniglutamicibacter cryotolerans. -->

  • A. crystallopoietes <small>Ensign and Rittenberg 1963 (Approved Lists 1980)</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter cumminsii was reclassified as Pseudoglutamicibacter cumminsii. -->

  • A. cupressi <small>Zhang et al. 2012</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter defluvii was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter defluvii. -->

  • A. deserti <small>Hu et al. 2016</small>
  • "A. dextranlyticum" <small>Hatada et al. 2004</small>
  • "A. dokdonellae" <small>Koh et al. 2019</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter duodecadis was reclassified as Phycicoccus duodecadis. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter echigonensis was reclassified as Sinomonas echigonensis. -->

  • A. echini <small>Lee et al. 2016</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter enclensis was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter enclensis. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter endophyticus was reclassified as Glutamicibacter endophyticus. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter equi was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter equi. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter flavescens was reclassified as Microbacterium flavescens. -->

  • A. flavus <small>Reddy et al. 2000</small>
  • A. frigidicola <small>Yang et al. 2021</small>
  • A. gandavensis <small>Storms et al. 2003</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter gangotriensis was reclassified as Paeniglutamicibacter gangotriensis. -->

  • A. ginkgonis <small>Cheng et al. 2017</small>
  • "A. ginsengisoli" <small>Siddiqi et al. 2014</small>
  • A. glacialis <small>Liu et al. 2019</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter globiforme is a misspelling of Arthrobacter globiformis. -->

  • A. globiformis <small>corrig. (Conn 1928) Conn and Dimmick 1947 (Approved Lists 1980)</small>
  • A. gyeryongensis <small>Hoang et al. 2014</small>
  • A. halodurans <small>Chen et al. 2012</small>

<!-- "Arthrobacter helvolum" is a misspelling of "Arthrobacter helvolus", which was reclassified as "Brevibacterium helvolum", which was not included in the Approved Lists. -->

<!-- "Arthrobacter helvolus" was reclassified as "Brevibacterium helvolum", which was not included in the Approved Lists. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter histidinolovorans was reclassified as Paenarthrobacter histidinolovorans. -->

  • A. humicola <small>Kageyama et al. 2008</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter ilicis was reclassified as Paenarthrobacter ilicis. -->

<!-- "Arthrobacter iodinum" was reclassified as Brevibacterium iodinum. -->

  • "A. ipsi" <small>Gonzalez-Dominici et al. 2021</small>
  • A. jiangjiafuii <small>Zhang et al. 2022</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter kerguelensis was reclassified as Paeniglutamicibacter kerguelensis. -->

  • "A. keyseri" <small>Eaton 2001</small>
  • A. koreensis <small>Lee et al. 2003</small>
  • A. liuii <small>Yu et al. 2015</small>
  • A. livingstonensis <small>Ganzert et al. 2011</small>
  • A. luteolus <small>Wauters et al. 2000</small>
  • "A. luteus" <small>Kaneko et al. 1969</small>

<!-- "Arthrobacter marinus" was reclassified as Cobetia marina. -->

  • A. methylotrophus <small>Borodina et al. 2002</small>
  • A. mobilis <small>Ye et al. 2020</small>
  • A. monumenti <small>Heyrman et al. 2005</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter mysorens was reclassified as Glutamicibacter nicotianae. -->

  • A. nanjingensis <small>uang et al. 2015</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter nasiphocae was reclassified as Falsarthrobacter nasiphocae. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter nicotianae was reclassified as Glutamicibacter nicotianae. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter nicotinovorans was reclassified as Paenarthrobacter nicotinovorans. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter niigatensis was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter niigatensis. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus was reclassified as Paenarthrobacter nitroguajacolicus. -->

  • "A. nitrophenolicus" <small>Arora and Jain 2013</small>
  • A. oryzae <small>Kageyama et al. 2008</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter oxydans was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter oxydans. -->

  • A. paludis <small>Zhang et al. 2018</small>
  • "A. paraffineus" <small>Duvnjak et al. 1982</small>
  • A. parietis <small>Heyrman et al. 2005</small>
  • A. pascens <small>Lochhead and Burton 1953 (Approved Lists 1980)</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter phenanthrenivorans was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter phenanthrenivorans. -->

  • "A. photogonimos" <small>Phinney and Hoober 1992</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter picolinophilus was reclassified as Nocardia calcarea. -->

  • A. pigmenti <small>Heyrman et al. 2005</small>
  • A. pityocampae <small>İnce et al. 2014</small>
  • A. pokkalii <small>Krishnan et al. 2017</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter polychromogenes was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter polychromogenes. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter protophormiae was reclassified as Glutamicibacter protophormiae. -->

  • A. psychrochitiniphilus <small>Wang et al. 2009</small>
  • A. psychrolactophilus <small>Loveland-Curtze et al. 2000</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter psychrophenolicus was reclassified as Paeniglutamicibacter psychrophenolicus. -->

<!-- "Arthrobacter pyridinolis" was not included in the Approved Lists. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter radiotolerans was reclassified as Rubrobacter radiotolerans. -->

  • A. ramosus <small>Jensen 1960 (Approved Lists 1980)</small>
  • A. rhombi <small>Osorio et al. 1999</small>
  • A. roseus <small>Reddy et al. 2002</small>
  • A. ruber <small>Liu et al. 2018</small>
  • A. russicus <small>Li et al. 2004</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter sanguinis was reclassified as Haematomicrobium sanguinis. -->

  • "A. saudimassiliensis" <small>Papadioti et al. 2017</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter scleromae was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter scleromae. -->

  • "A. sedimenti" <small>Lin et al. 2020</small>
  • "A. senegalensis" <small>Ndiaye et al. 2019</small>

<!-- "Arthrobacter sialophilus" was not included in the Approved Lists. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter siccitolerans was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter siccitolerans. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter siderocapsulatus was reclassified as Pseudomonas putida. -->

  • A. silvisoli <small>Yan et al. 2018</small>
  • A. silviterrae <small>Lee et al. 2017</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter simplex was reclassified as Nocardioides simplex. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter soli was reclassified as Glutamicibacter soli. -->

  • A. stackebrandtii <small>Tvrzová et al. 2005</small>
  • A. subterraneus <small>Chang et al. 2008</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter sulfonivorans was reclassified as Pseudarthrobacter sulfonivorans. -->

  • "A. sulfonylureivorans" <small>Han et al. 2021</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter sulfureus was reclassified as Paeniglutamicibacter sulfureus. -->

  • A. sunyaminii <small>Zhang et al. 2022</small>
  • A. tecti <small>Heyrman et al. 2005</small>
  • "A. terrae" <small>Jiang et al. 2022</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter terregens was reclassified as Microbacterium terregens. -->

  • A. terricola <small>Trinh and Kim 2021</small>
  • A. tumbae <small>Heyrman et al. 2005</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter tumescens was reclassified as Terrabacter tumescens. -->

  • A. ulcerisalmonis <small>Kämpfer et al. 2020</small>

<!-- Arthrobacter uratoxydans was reclassified as Glutamicibacter uratoxydans. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter ureafaciens was reclassified as Paenarthrobacter ureafaciens. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter variabilis was reclassified as Corynebacterium variabile. -->

<!-- Arthrobacter viscosus was reclassified as Rhizobium viscosum. -->

  • "A. wenxiniae" <small>Sun et al. 2022</small>
  • A. woluwensis <small>Funke et al. 1997</small>
  • A. yangruifuii <small>Ge et al. 2020</small>
  • A. zhaoguopingii <small>Ge et al. 2020</small>

References

  • Arthrobacter Genome Projects (from Genomes OnLine Database)
  • Comparative Analysis of Arthrobacter Genomes (at DOE's IMG system)