Chelatobacter heintzii (Auling et al. 1993) is a later subjective synonym of Aminobacter aminovorans (Urakami et al. 1992)

Chelatobacter heintzii, which was described as a nitrilotriacetate-utilizing
organism, was re-investigated in order to clarify its taxonomic position. On the
basis of 16S rDNA sequence comparisons, it is obvious that this species clusters
phylogenetically with species of the genus Aminobacter. The results of
investigations of the fatty acid patterns, polar lipid profiles, polyamine
patterns and quinone system supported this placement. The substrateutilization
profiles and fatty acid patterns of four strains (belonging to two
different genomovars) revealed homogeneous results and showed high levels
of similarity to Aminobacter aminovorans. DNA–DNA similarity studies
confirmed that both genomovars of Chelatobacter heintzii belong to
Aminobacter aminovorans. It could be shown that all species of this group are
highly interrelated. On the basis of these data and previously published
results, it is obvious that Chelatobacter heintzii is a later subjective synonym
of Aminobacter aminovorans.