[5] The genus Xenophilus comes from the Greek words "xeno" meaning foreign or strange and "philia" which translates to friendship or fondness.
[5] The species name azovorans comes from its ability to degrade azo dyes and the Latin "vorare," meaning devour.
strain KF46F,[6] Xenophilus azovorans was first isolated by Kulla et al. in 1984 from a soil inoculate that had been enriched with carboxy-orange II (1-(4'-carboxyphenylazo)-2-naphthol)[7] as a sole carbon source.
[8] In the lab, the strain was able to grow on nutrient-rich media, but failed to completely degrade Orange II under such conditions.
[8] Fatty acid extraction was analyzed by a Hewlett Packard model gas chromatograph and prepared by the Microbial Identification System protocol.
[8] ARB software is a graphic package that contains tools needed for the handling of sequence database and data analysis and has led to the establishment of an interdisciplinary bioinformatics group.
[11] Isolated from mud and soil in the USSR, Hydrogenophaga flava is a Gram-negative facultatively autotrophic hydrogen bacteria.
[15] Strain KF46FT consists of predominant polar lipids such as phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, and has an unknown aminophospholipid.
[16] The 16s ribosomal RNA gene of X. azovorans KF46FT has been amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and has been sequenced.
[15] Researchers performed pulse field gel electrophoresis, a similar method described by Barton et al.,[17] and determined that the strain contains two plasmids of sizes 100 and 350 kb.
[15] Per high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods described by Mesbah and Whitman,[18] GC content of X. azovorans KF46FT was determined to be approximately 70 percent.
[19][15] Based on research performed by Blumel et al.,[5] the organism was characterized by growth on different carbon sources and sugar fermentation.
[15] Based on pathways shown on KEGG, 10.51 percent of X.azovoran's genome is genes that contribute to amino acid metabolism.
[16] The organism tests positive for oxidase and catalase, but cannot produce urease,[15] unlike its closely related neighbor Xenophilus aerolatus.
[24] Due to this significant use, the azoreductase gene from X. azovorans strain KF46FT was purified using affinity chromatography methods and cloned using PCR.
[25] It was found that 3 percent of waste from the azo dye processing plant ended up in the river that provides water to thousands of people.
[25] Other studies, such as the one performed by Myslak et al.[26], determined that painters exposed to azo dyes for a long period of time developed bladder cancer.
[25] All in all, it is important that more research be done on the X. azovorans azoreductase gene due to its ability to break down chemicals in wastewater and to potentially prevent many humans from developing intestinal diseases.