| Morphology | Xenorhabdus |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | Gram negative |
| Morphology | Rod-shaped cells 0.8-2 um x 4-10 um. |
| Motility | Motile by means of peritrichous flagella. |
| Specialized structures | In older cultures the cells contain crystalline inclusions (not poly-B-hydroxy-butyrate). Coccoid bodies (spherical cells), resulting from the disintegration of the cell wall, are also formed in older cultures and average 2.6 um in size. |
| Division |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Xenorhabdus |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Tropism | |
| Oxygen | Facultatively anaerobic, having both a respiratory and a fermentative type of metabolism |
| pH | |
| Temperature | Optimum temperature is 25`C. Grows poorly or not at all at 36`C. |
| Requirements | |
| Products | Acid production from glucose is weak or delayed, even at 25`C; most older carbohydrates are not fermented or the amount of acid produced is very small. Nitrate is not reduced to nitrite. Most biochemical tests used for differentiation of the Enterobacteriaceae are negative |
| Enzymes | One species is catalase-negative |
| Unique features | One species is bioluminescent.. |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | Isolated only from nematodes of the genera Neoplectana and Heterorhabditis |
| Lifestyle | |
| Pathogenicity | they parasitize. insect larvae |
| Distribution |
| Genome | Xenorhabdus |
| G+C Mol % | 43-44 (Bd) |
| Reference | Xenorhabdus |
| First citation | Thomas,G.M. and G.O. Poinar (1979) Xenorhabdus gen. nov., a genus of entomopathogenic nematophilic bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae IJSB 29:352-360 |
| The Prokaryotes | p |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p 510 J.J. Farmer |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 188 |
| References |