Recent Taxonomic Changes and Update of Nomenclature for Bacteria Identified in Clinical Material

Excerpt

Taxonomy is the part of biological science that defines species, gathers organisms into groups and, together with phylogeny, establishes relationships between single species and larger groups of species, giving names to all these categories using a binomial nomenclature [1, 2]. Taxonomy therefore provides a basis for the identification and typing of previously unknown organisms and for comparing them with already known organisms [1]. In this system the definition of species is the principal underlying concept [1]. Due to new scientific methods and an ever increasing amount of data, taxonomy and nomenclature remain in a continuous state of change. In recent years a huge reclassification of bacteria has occurred, mainly due to the increasing amount of new molecular and genetic data. New species, genera, families and orders were established and numerous species were reclassified and regrouped [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]. …