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Title: Microbial taxonomy in the post-genomic era: Rebuilding from scratch?

Journal Article · · Archives of Microbiology
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8]
  1. Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil)
  2. Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil); San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  3. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil); Radbould Univ., Nijmegen (Netherlands)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Hokkaido Univ., Hakodate (Japan)
  7. Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil); Ghent Univ. (Belgium)
  8. Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil); Advanced Systems Laboratory Production Management COPPE / UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Microbial taxonomy should provide adequate descriptions of bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic microbial diversity in ecological, clinical, and industrial environments. We re-evaluated the prokaryote species twice. It is time to revisit polyphasic taxonomy, its principles, and its practice, including its underlying pragmatic species concept. We will be able to realize an old dream of our predecessor taxonomists and build a genomic-based microbial taxonomy, using standardized and automated curation of high-quality complete genome sequences as the new gold standard.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; DEB-1046413
OSTI ID:
1287000
Journal Information:
Archives of Microbiology, Vol. 197, Issue 3; ISSN 0302-8933
Publisher:
Springer
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English