Novosphingobium aromaticivorans DSM 12444

Novosphingobium (Sphingomonas) aromaticivorans strain DSM 12444 is an alphaproteobacterium and is characterized as a Gram-negative, non-spore forming rod displaying a single polar flagellum when it is motile. It is yellow pigmented and obligately aerobic. Unlike typical gram-negative bacteria, it does not have lipopolysaccharide, but rather glycosphingolipid, which is usually a membrane component of eukaryotic cells. The thermoreversible gel formation and solution viscosity properties of these glycosphingolipids (sphingans) make them of technical interest and useful in applications for a wide range of food and pharmaceutical products. The role of sphingans has been proposed to be important in colonization of eukaryotic organisms including plants, marine organisms, and humans by Novosphingobium. N. aromaticivorans strains have been isolated from a wide variety of sources including soil, both marine and fresh waters, marine life, and from plants. Many of the first isolates assigned to this genus (S. paucimobilis) were derived from human clinical specimens or water samples taken from hospital environments and members of this species have been subsequently shown to behave as opportunistic pathogens. More recently, N. aromaticivorans has been linked to the death of coral reefs off the Florida coast. Although there is an emerging role of Novosphingobium species in disease, members of this genus are best known for their ability to degrade a wide variety of aromatic hydrocarbons. (EBI Integr8)