Azotobacter

Genus Azotobacter was first described in 1901 by Dutch microbiologists and botanists, one of the founders of environmental microbiology Martin Beyerinkom on the basis of the first selected and described them with Azotobacter chroococcum, the first aerobic free azotfiksatora.

In 1903, Lipman described the Azotobacter vinelandii Lipman, 1903, a year later, Azotobacter beijerinckii Lipman, 1904, named them in honor of Martin Beyerinka. In 1949, the Russian microbiologist Nikolai Krasilnikov described species Azotobacter nigricans Krasil'nikov, 1949, in 1981, divided Thompson)and Skerman)into two subspecies: Azotobacter nigricans subsp. nigricans Krasil'nikov, 1949 and Azotobacter nigricans subsp. achromogenes Thompson and Skerman, 1981, in the same year, Thompson and Skirman describe the kind of Azotobacter armeniacus Thompson and Skerman, 1981. In 1991, Page and Shivprasad described microaerophilic dependent on sodium ions aerotolerantny type Azotobacter salinestris Page and Shivprasad 1991.

Earlier, representatives of the genus belonging to the family Azotobacteraceae Pribram, 1933, but were then transferred to the family Pseudomonadaceae on the basis of examination of the nucleotide sequences of 16S rRNA. In 2004, a study phylogeny, and found that Azotobacter vinelandii is a put with the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In 2007, it was assumed on the proximity of genera Azotobacter, Azomonas and Pseudomonas and the possible synonymous.