Table 1

The nomenclature and classification used here for prokaryotes (=Bacteria)




Example genus

NEGIBACTERIA (subkingdom)

Glidobacteria



     Eobacteria




Chlorobacteria*
Chloroflexi; green non-sulphur
Chloroflexus

Hadobacteria
Deinococcus/Thermus group
Thermus

Cyanobacteria

Nostoc
Gracilicutes




Spirochaetae
Spirochaetes
Treponema

Sphingobacteria



     Chlorobea
Chlorobi
Chlorobium

     Flavobacteria
CFB group + Fibrobacteres
Cytophaga
     Exoflagellata




Proteobacteria



     Rhodobacteria
α-, β-, γ-proteobacteria
Escherichia

     Thiobacteria
δ-, ε-proteobacteria + Aquificales
Helicobacter

     Geobacteria
Deferribacteres + Acidobacteria +
Geovibrio

Planctobacteria
Planctomycetes + Chlamydiales +
Pirellula
Eurybacteria




Selenobacteria

Sporomusa

Fusobacteria

Fusobacterium

Togobacteria
Thermotogales
Thermotoga
UNIBACTERIA (subkingdom)



Posibacteria




Endobacteria
low-GC Gram positives (incl. Mollicutes)
Bacillus

Actinobacteria
high-GC Gram positives (e.g. Actinomycetales)
Streptomyces
Archaebacteria




Euryarchaeota
euryarchaeotes (e.g. methanogens)
Halobacterium

Crenarchaeota
crenarchaeotes
Sulfolobus

* The 10 taxa shown in bold are ranked as phyla. A more detailed classification is given later in the paper, when I explain the small improvements over the previous system [1].

In addition to the taxa listed, three informal names are used for the following higher groups:

glycobacteria (a paraphyletic grade) = Cyanobacteria + Eurybacteria + Gracilicutes

proteates (a clade) = Actinomycetales + Archaebacteria + Eukaryota

neomura (a clade) = Archaebacteria + Eukaryota

Cavalier-Smith Biology Direct 2006 1:19   doi:10.1186/1745-6150-1-19