The microorganism, then named Rhodonostoc capsulatum, was identified in 1907 in his book Die Purpurbakterien nach neuen Untersuchungen.
Van Niel initially described 16 strains of R. capsulata that he was able to culture from mud samples collected in California and Cuba.
This genus was introduced to better differentiate Rhodopseudomonas species with distinct morphological differences such as those with vesicular intracytoplasmic membranes (membrane-bound compartments in the cell often involved in photosynthesis)[9] like R. capsulatus and R.
The complete genome was then analyzed using several programs, Critica, Glimmer, RNAmmer, tRNAscan, and ARAGORN.
[12] Initially, this bacteria could be grown in the lab by plating samples from the environment onto RCVBN (DL-malic acid, ammonium sulfate, biotin, nicotinic acid, trace elements, and some additional compounds) medium and incubating them anaerobically with ample light.
Anaerobic culturing of the organism produces a brown color, on the spectrum of yellow-brown to burgundy.
However, it cannot use mannitol, tartrate, citrate, gluconate, ethanol, sorbitol, mannose, and leucine, which is unique to R. capsulatus when compared to other species in the genus.
[14] Under photoheterotrophic conditions, R. capsulatus strain B10 is capable of using acetate as its sole carbon source, but the mechanisms of this have not been identified.
This DNA exchange was still observed even when cell contact was eliminated and DNases were added which allowed them to rule out conjugation and transformation as the cause.
[20] When a mutant strain that over-produced these agents was created, it was proven the particles were not being produced by a phage, but by R.
[19] It has been suggested that harsh conditions may trigger the cell to begin producing GTAs which would allow genomic DNA to be shared and increase the overall genetic diversity of the population.
[23] This allows for research into the biogenesis of the Cytochrome c oxidase and has led to the identification of assembly genes involved in the biogenesis and function of the cbb3-type cytochrome c oxidase, notably by Hans-Georg Koch, leading to a better understanding of these clinically relevant pathogenic species.