Taxonomy and Classification of Bacteria

This chapter discusses the state of the art in bacterial taxonomy. It addresses criteria for species delineation, the polyphasic species concept, and multilocus sequence- and whole-genome sequence-based approaches for species definition. An overview of classification and identification methods is presented, which includes traditional phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and genotypic techniques. In addition, the chapter briefly describes major groups of bacteria, the practice of reporting the taxonomy of uncultured bacteria, bacterial nomenclature, the valid publication of bacterial names, and name changes.