''Azomonas'' species are typically motile, oval to spherical, and secrete large quantities of
capsular slime. They are distinguished from ''
Azotobacter
''Azotobacter'' is a genus of usually motile, oval or spherical bacteria that form thick-walled cysts (and also has hard crust) and may produce large quantities of capsular slime. They are aerobic, free-living soil microbes that play an im ...
'' by their inability to form cysts, but like ''Azotobacter'', they can biologically fix nitrogen under aerobic conditions (
diazotroph Diazotrophs are bacteria and archaea that fix gaseous nitrogen in the atmosphere into a more usable form such as ammonia.
A diazotroph is a microorganism that is able to grow without external sources of fixed nitrogen. Examples of organisms that ...
s).
Bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...
of the genus ''Azomonas'' are known to form intracellular inclusions of
polyhydroxyalkanoates
Polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHAs are polyesters produced in nature by numerous microorganisms, including through bacterial fermentation of sugars or lipids. When produced by bacteria they serve as both a source of energy and as a carbon store. M ...
under certain environmental conditions (e.g. lack of elements such as phosphorus, nitrogen, or oxygen combined with an excessive supply of carbon sources).
Etymology
The name ''Azomonas'' derives from:
:
New Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
noun ''azotum''
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
prep. ά, ''a'', not;
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
noun ζωή, ''zōē'', life; Greek language">Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
noun άζωη, ''azōē'', not sustaining life)], nitrogen; New Latin ''azo''-, pertaining to nitrogen; Latin -monas, ''monas'' (μονάς), nominally meaning "a unit", but in effect meaning a bacterium; New Latin ''Azomonas'', nitrogen monad.