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Unit of Classifiction in Bacteria

Unit of Classification in Bacteria - The bacteria are usually classified according to the Linnean binomial scheme of genus and species. As specified in the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria; scientific names of all taxa (categories) or those words used to refer to any taxonomic group, are either to be taken from Latin or are Latinized, if taken from other languages. According to the bionomial system of nomenclature, each distinct species is given a name consisting of two words e.g. Salmonella typhi.

The first word is the name of the genus and is always written with a capital letter. The second word is a specific epithet and is not capitalized. A sequence of taxonomic categories is employed to group related organisms at various levels of similarity. These categories or taxa are: The terms species or genus are used as in other types of classifica­tion and a species is defined as a single kind of bacterium, while a genus includes a group of species all of which bear sufficient resem­blance to one another to be considered closely related and can be easily distinguished from the members of other genera.

The boundaries of species are rather difficult to define precisely however, the boundaries of some genera are sharply defined. For example, the genus Bacillus is clearly distinguished from the genus Escherichia in that the former are Gram positive, endospore forming rods while the latter arc Gram negative, facultative, non-spore forming rods.

Three terms commonly used in microbiology are strain, clone and a type species. A strain is a culture of a given species while a clone is a strain derived from a single cell. A type species is a culture that is thoroughly studied and easily identifiable as a species. The name of a type species generally conveys the characteristics of the group.

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