Bacterial Classification

• From the time of Aristotle, living organisms were categorized

in just two ways, as either plants or animals.
• In 1735, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus introduced a
formal system of classification dividing living organisms into
two kingdoms-Plantae and Animalia.
• In 1857, Carl von Nägeli, a contemporary of Pasteur,
proposed that bacteria and fungi be placed in the plant
kingdom.
• In 1866, Ernst Haeckel proposed the Kingdom Protista, to
include bacteria, protozoa, algae, and fungi.
• With the advent of electron microscopy, the physical
differences between cells became apparent.
• The term prokaryote was introduced in 1937 by Edouard
Chatton to distinguish cells having no nucleus from the
nucleated cells of plants and animals.
• In 1961, Roger Stanier provided the current definition of
prokaryotes: cells in which the nuclear material
(nucleoplasm) is not surrounded by a nuclear membrane.
• In 1968, Robert G.E. Murray proposed the Kingdom
Prokaryotae.
• In 1969, Robert H. Whittaker founded the five-kingdom
system in which prokaryotes were placed in the Kingdom
Prokaryotae, or Monera, and eukaryotes comprised the
other four kingdoms.
• The Kingdom Prokaryotae had been based on microscopic
observations.
• Subsequently, new techniques in molecular biology revealed
that there are actually two types of prokaryotic cells and one
type of eukaryotic cell.
• Bacteria are classified and identified to distinguish one
organism from another and to group similar organisms by
criteria of interest to microbiologists or other scientists.
• Bacteria may be the most significant group of organisms on
earth.
• They are responsible for much of the decomposition of dead
organisms, they convert nitrogen for plants, they help many
animals digest food, they produced oxygen in the early
atmosphere, and they make certain foods (yogurt, cheese,
etc.).
• The science of classification, especially the classification of
living forms, is called taxonomy (from the Greek for orderly
arrangement).
• The objective of taxonomy is to classify living organisms-that
is, to establish the relationships between one group of
organisms and another and to differentiate them.
• There may be as many as 100 million different living
organisms
• But fewer than 10% have been discovered, much less
classified and identified.
• Taxonomy also provides a common reference for
identifying organisms already classified.
• For example, when a bacterium suspected of causing a
specific disease is isolated from a patient, characteristics of
that isolate are matched to lists of characteristics of
previously classified bacteria to identify the isolate.
• Finally, taxonomy is a basic and necessary tool for
scientists, providing a universal language of
communication.
Bacteria can be classified by:
1. colony shape in culture
2. motility
3. morphological characteristics other than shape...eg
multiple flagella
4. metabolic activity eg. sugars they ferment
5. DNA sequence
BACTERIA CLASSIFICATION BASED ON SHAPES AND COLONY
MORPHOLOGY

• Before the advent of DNA sequencing, bacteria were

classified based on their shapes and biochemical properties.
• Most of the bacteria belong to three main shapes: rod (rod
shaped bacteria are called bacilli), sphere (sphere shaped
bacteria are called cocci) and spiral (spiral shaped bacteria
are called spirilla).
• Some bacteria belong to different shapes, which are more
complex than the above mentioned shapes.
• Bacteria show characteristic type of growth on solid media under
appropriate cultural conditions and the colony morphology can be
used in presumptive identification.
• The colonies can be varying in size and diameter, in outline (circular,
wavy, rhizoid etc.) elevation (flat, raised, convex, etc.) and
translucency (transparent, opaque, and translucent).
• The colour of the colony or the changes that they bring about in their
surroundings is also used as diagnostic tools in the tentative
identification of the bacteria.
• For example, colonies of streptococci on blood agar medium are
small, beadlike and have a opalescent grey colour with smooth or
slightly rough edges.
AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC BACTERIA
• Bacteria are also classified based on the requirement of
oxygen for their survival.
• Bacteria those need oxygen for their survival are called
Aerobic bacteria and bacteria those do not require oxygen
for survival.
• Anaerobic bacteria cannot bear oxygen and may die if kept in
oxygenated environment (anaerobic bacteria are found in
places like under the surface of earth, deep ocean, and
bacteria which live in some medium).
GRAM POSITIVE AND GRAM NEGATIVE BACTERIA
• For more than a century bacteria have been classified
according to their "Gram reaction" - named after Christian
Gram who devised the protocol for his staining process in
1884.

• Bacteria are grouped as ‘Gram Positive’ bacteria and ‘Gram

Negative’ bacteria, which is based on the results of Gram
Staining Method (in which, an agent is used to bind to the
cell wall of the bacteria) on bacteria.
AUTOTROPHIC AND HETEROTROPHIC BACTERIA
• This is one of the most important classification types as it takes into
account the most important aspect of bacteria growth and
reproduction.
• Autotrophic bacteria (also known as autotrophs) obtain the carbon it
requires from carbon-dioxide.
• Some autotrophs directly use sun-light in order to produce sugar from
carbon-dioxide whereas other depend on various chemical reactions.
• A heterotroph is an organism that cannot manufacture its own food
by carbon fixation and therefore derives its intake of nutrition from
other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter.
• In the food chain, heterotrophs are secondary and tertiary
consumers.
Classification of bacteria based on nutritional requirement
CLASSIFICATION BASED ON PHYLA
• Based on the morphology, DNA sequencing, conditions required and
biochemistry, scientists have classified bacteria into phyla:
• 1) Aquificae
• 2) Xenobacteria
• 3) Fibrobacter
• 4) Bacteroids
• 5) Firmicutes
• 6) Planctomycetes
• 7) Chrysogenetic
• 8) Cyanobacteria
• 9) Thermomicrobia
• 10) Chlorobia
• 11) Proteobacteria
• 12) Spirochaetes
• 13) Flavobacteria
• 14) Fusobacteria
• 15) Verrucomicrobia
• Each phylum further corresponds to number of species and genera of
bacteria.
• The bacteria classification includes bacteria which are found in
various types of environments such as sweet water bacteria, ocean
water bacteria, bacteria that can survive extreme temperatures
(extreme hot as in sulfur water spring bacteria and extreme cold as in
bacteria found in Antarctica ice).
• Bacteria that can survive in highly acidic environment, bacteria that
can survive highly alkaline environment, aerobic bacteria, anaerobic
bacteria, autotrophic bacteria, heterotrophic bacteria, bacteria that
can withstand high radiation etc.
• Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology has been a
widely used reference since the first edition was published in
1923.
• The American bacteriologist David Bergey was chairman of
the group who compiled information on the known bacteria
from articles published in scientific journals.
• Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (9th ed.,
1994) does not classify bacteria according to evolutionary
relatedness.
• But instead provides identification (determinative)
schemes.
• Schemes based on such criteria as cell wall
composition, morphology, differential staining, oxygen
requirements, and biochemical testing.
• The majority of Bacteria and Archaea have not been
cultured, and scientists estimate that only 1% of these
microbes have been discovered.
THE BERGEY CLASSIFICATION OF BACTERIA
• One of the more comprehensive bacterial classification manuals has
been Bergey’s manual of determinative Bacteriology.
• Because of on going taxonomic studies new species are continuously
being described and changes are made.
• Bergey Division I = The Cyanobacteria (formerly the blue-green alga)
• These bacteria can use light as their energy source under aerobic
conditions.
• They use carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
• Bergey Division II = The Bacteria (includes the photo bacteria and all
other classical bacteria).
• The archaeabacteria were mixed within the 19 parts of the book
Bergey’s classification of bacteria
The Bergey Classification of Bacteria into 19 parts.
• Phototrophic Bacteria: Rhodospirillum - Chromatium
• Rhodopseudomonas
• Gliding Bacteria: Myxococcus - Beggiatoa - Simonsiella -
Leucothrix
• Sheathed Bacteria: Sphaerotilus - Leptothrix
• Budding / Appendaged Bacteria: Caulobacter - Gallionella
• Spirochetes: Spirochaeta - Treponema - Borrelia
• Spiral and Curved Bacteria: Spirillum - Auqaspirillum -
Oceanospirillum -Bdellovibrio
• Gram-negative Aerobic Rods and Cocci: Pseudomonas -
Xanthanomonas -Zoogloea - Gluconobacter - Azotobacter - Rhizobium
- Agrobacterium - Halobacterium - Acetobacter
• Gram-Negative Facultative Anaerobic Rods: Escherichia - Citrobacter
- Salmonella - Shigella - Klebsiella - Enterobacter - Serratia - Proteus -
Yersinia - Erwinia - Vibrio - Aeromonas - Zymomonas -
Chromobacterium - Flavobacterium
• Gram-negative anaerobes: Bacteriodes - Fusobacterium -
Desulfovibrio - Succinimonas
• Gram-Negative cocci: Nisseria - Branhamella - Acinetobacter -
Paracoccus
• Gram-negative anaerobic cocci: Veillonella - Acidaminococcus
• Gram-Negative Chemolithotrophic: Nitrobacter - Thiobacillus -
Siderocapsa
• Methane producing : Methanococcus, Methanosarcina
• Gram-Positive Cocci: Micrococcus - Staphylococcus - Streptococcus -
Leuconostoc - Pediococcus - Aerococcus - Peptococcus - Ruminococcus -
Sarcina
• Endospore-forming Rods and cocci: Bacillus - Clostridium - Sporosarcina
• Gram-positive, non-sporing rods: Lactobacillus - Listeria - Erysipelothrix -
Caryophanon
• Taxonomy provides tools for clarifying the evolution of
organisms, as well as their interrelationships.

• New organisms are being discovered every day, and

taxonomists continue to search for a natural classification
system that reflects phylogenetic relationships.