Nomenclature of microorganisms

Nomenclature of microorganisms

• 2.
  • The Greekphilosopher Aristotle attempted to classify all living things as either Plant or Animal. • Land Dwellers • Water Dwellers • Air Dwellers
• 3.
  • Subsequent scientistslater tried to classify living creatures by means of locomotion, grouping butterflies and bats (flying). • The efforts to classify living things saw great progress in the work of Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist. He developed his naming system in the middle 1700’s, which essentially the same one we use today.
• 4.
  • Name allknown plants, animals, and minerals using Latin and Greek names. • One of his books, Systema Naturae, meaning “The Natural Classification", was published in 1735 and was based on his religious belief that one could understand God by studying his creation.
• 5.
  Today, microorganism namesoriginate from four different sources: • Descriptive – For example Staphylococcus aureus (grape-like cluster of spheres, golden in color). • Scientist’s names – e.g., Escherichia coli (Theodor Esherich), Erlichia (Paul Erlich), Nessieria (Albert Neisser), Listeria (Joseph Lister). • Geographic places – e.g., Legionella longbeachiae (Long Beach, California), Pasturella tularensis (Tulare County, California), Pseudomonas fairmontensis (Fairmount Park, Pennsylvania). • Organizations – e.g., Legionella (American Legion), Afipia felis (Air Force Institute of Pathology), Cedecea spp. (Centers for Disease Control), Bilophila wadsworthia (VA Wadsworth Medical Center in Los Angeles)
• 6.
  • Kingdom (Americansystem has six: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea, Bacteria) • Phylum • Class • Order • Family • Genus • Species • Subspecies
• 7.
  For example, thebacteria used in yogurt production would be classified as follows… Kingdom: Bacteria Phylum: Firmicutes Class: Bacilli Order: Lactobacillales Family: Lactobacillaceae Genus: Lactobacillus Species: L. delbrueckii Subspecies: L. d. bulgaricus Known as the “Father of Modern Taxonomy” Carl Linnaeus was the first to consistanly name plants and animals using the binomial system of Latin names for genus and species.
• 8.
  • Use BinaryNames Binary names (invented by Linnaeus), consisting of a generic name and a species epithet (e.g., Escherichia coli), must be used for all microorganisms. Names of categories at or above the genus level may be used alone, but species and subspecies names (species names) may not. In other words…never use a species name alone.
• 9.
  • When toCapitalize – The genus name (and above) is always capitalized, the species name is never capitalized, e.g. Bacillus anthracis. • When to Italicize - Names of all taxa (kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genera, species, and subspecies) are printed in italics and should be underlined if handwritten; strain designations and numbers are not. If all the surrounding text is italic, then the binary name would be non-italic (Roman typeface) or underlined (e.g. A common cause of diarrhea is E. coli 0157, a gram negative bacillus).
• 10.
  • When touse Initials A specific epithet must be preceded by a generic name, written out in full the first time it is used in a paper. Thereafter, the generic name should be abbreviated to the initial capital letter (e.g., E. coli), provided there can be no confusion with other genera used in the paper. Be careful with the “S” words; Salmonella, Shigella, Serratia, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, etc.
• 11.
  • Common Names- Vernacular (common) names should be in lowercase roman type, non-italic (e.g., streptococcus, brucella). However when referring to the actual genus name (or above) always capitalize and italicize. • Subspecies and Serovars - For Salmonella, genus, species, and subspecies names should be rendered in standard form: Salmonella enterica at first use, S. enterica thereafter; Salmonella enterica subsp. arizonae at first use, S. enterica subsp. arizonae thereafter.
• 12.
  Abbreviations for Species use“sp.” for a particular species, “spp.” for several species (“spp” stands for “species plural”). These abbreviations are not italicized; e.g. Clostridium sp. or Clostridium spp. Other Abbreviations: • e.g. meaning 'for example' (it comes from the Latin, exempli gratia) • i.e. meaning 'that is' (from the Latin id est). Note that 'i.e.' specifies particular things, whereas 'e.g.' gives examples. • etc. meaning 'and so forth' (from the Latin et cetera) [Some people, wrongly, write ect.] • et al. meaning 'and others' (from the Latin et alia). You would use this only when citing references.
• 13.
  Plural Forms • Pluralof genus is genera • Plural of species (sp.) is species (spp.) • Plural of medium is media (never say “this culture media”) • Plural of fungus is fungi • Plural of streptococcus is streptococci (staphylococcus - staphylococci; enterococcus - enterococci, etc) • Plural of bacillus is bacilli • Plural of bacterium is bacteria • Plural of alga is algae • Plural of protozoan is protozoa