Abstract
Ni.tro.so.te.nu.a.ce'ae. N.L. adj
nitrosus
nitrous; L. adj.
tenuis
slender;
‐aceae
ending to denote a family; N.L. fem. pl. n.
Nitrosotenuaceae
the
Nitrosotenuis
family.
Candidatus
Nitrosotenuaceae: A family of slender nitrite producers
Candidatus
Nitrosotenuaceae is a family of
Thaumarchaeota
that consists of a single genus,
Ca
. Nitrosotenuis, which can be found widely distributed in soils, freshwater, hot springs, the subsurface, and activated sludge. They may be rods or spheres and may or may not have flagella. Similar to other known and described
Thaumarchaeota
,
Ca
. Nitrosotenuaceae are aerobic chemolithautotrophs that use energy gained from the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite to fix carbon via modified 3‐hydroxypropionate/4‐hydroxybutyrate carbon fixation pathway. At this time, no pure culture of
Ca
. Nitrosotenuaceae exists, but some of the six available enrichments with members of the genus are almost pure. It remains to be demonstrated whether the remaining bacterial contaminants provide essential compounds to
Ca
. Nitrosotenuaceae. Enrichments of
Ca
. Nitrosotenuaceae are intolerant to high salinity (>0.3%), although they are phylogenetically related to the Group I.1a
Thaumarchaeota
(
Ca
. Nitrosopumilaceae), which includes taxa that are widely distributed in the ocean.
Taxonomic and Nomenclature Notes
According to the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN), the taxonomic status of the family
Candidatus Nitrosotenuaceae
is: preferred name (not correct name) (last update, February 2025)
*
.
LPSN classification:
Archaea
/
Thermoproteati
/
Thermoproteota
/
Nitrososphaeria
/
Nitrosopumilales
/
Candidatus Nitrosotenuaceae
The family
Candidatus Nitrosotenuaceae
can also be recovered in the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) as
f__Nitrosopumilaceae
(version v220)
**
.
GTDB classification:
d__Archaea
/
p__Thermoproteota
/
c__Nitrososphaeria
/
o__Nitrososphaerales
/
f__Nitrosopumilaceae
*
Meier‐Kolthoff
et al. (
2022
).
Nucleic Acids Res
,
50
,
D801
–
D807
; DOI:
10.1093/nar/gkab902
**
Parks
et al. (
2022
).
Nucleic Acids Res
,
50
,
D785
–
D794
; DOI:
10.1093/nar/gkab776