Introduction
The genus Hafnia was recognized by Møller (1954) while studying amino acid decarboxylase patterns among Enterobacteriaceae. Members of this taxon are Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic rods that are typically methyl red and Voges-Proskauer positive, positive for lysine and ornithine decarboxylase, and negative for arginine dihydrolase. The taxonomic position of these organisms has been the subject of some controversy, and over the years they have been referred to as Bacillus asiaticus (cited by Ewing and Fife, 1968), Bacterium cadaveria (Gale and Epps, 1943), Aerobacter species biotype 32011 (Stuart et al., 1943b), Enterobacter alvei (Sakazaki, 1961), Enterobacter aerogenes subsp. hafniae (Ewing, 1963), and Enterobacter hafniae (Ewing and Fife, 1968). However, DNA hybridization studies have shown that these organisms are distinct from Enterobacter (Steigerwalt et al., 1976), and Hafnia alvei (the only recognized species of the genus) is a legitimate taxon.
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McBee, M.E., Schauer, D.B. (2006). The Genus Hafnia. In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30746-X_10
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