HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE PHYLUM ALPHAPROTEOBACTERIA (STACKENBRANDT ET AL. 1988)
| EUBACTERIA> PROTEOBACTERIAE> ALPHAPROTEOBACTERIA |
PHYLUM ALPHAPROTEOBACTERIA LINKS
| The Alphaproteobacteria has two major groups within it: the rickettesias and all other taxa (Williams et al. 2007). We took this separation to be at the class-level (classes Rickettsiae and Rhodobacteriae). The ordinal structure is from Garrity et al. (2003). We generally follow the system of Garrity et al. (2003), but used Williams et al. (2003) as support for the large separation at the class-level. |
- CLASS RICKETTSIAE
- Very small, intracellular parasites; rods or cocci; limited metabolic capabilities; often cause disease in vertebrate hosts (Rickettsias also occur in invertebrates as intermediate hosts); often with a complex life cycle. Rods, cocci, or irregular; G- walls and no flagella. Require host cell for metabolism and division.
- ORDER RICKETTSIALES
- Cells with muramic acid and diaminopimelic acid in their walls; ATP generating system present. 16S rRNA data suggest that these organisms may be closely related to the Purple Bacteria such as Agrobacterium.
- Rickettsia, Orientia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Neorickettsia, Wolbachia, Aegyptianella (incertae sedis)
- Holospora
- Incertae Sedis: Caedibacter, Lyticum, Candidatus, Pseudocaedibacter, Pseudodolyticum, Tectibacter
- ORDER RICKETTSIALES
- Very small, intracellular parasites; rods or cocci; limited metabolic capabilities; often cause disease in vertebrate hosts (Rickettsias also occur in invertebrates as intermediate hosts); often with a complex life cycle. Rods, cocci, or irregular; G- walls and no flagella. Require host cell for metabolism and division.
- CLASS RHODOBACTERIAE
- ORDER RHODOSPIRILLALES
- Very diverse (phenotypically, metabolically, and ecologically). Grow as chemoorganotrophs, chemolithotrophs, and photoheterotrophs, some of which can grow as photoautotrophs. Some grow as methylotrophs.
- Rhodospirillum, Azospirillum, Levispirillum, Magnetospirillum, Phaeospirillum, Rhodocista, Rhodospira, Rhodovibrio, Roseospira, Roseospirillum, Skermanella, Sporospirillum (incertae sedis)
- Acetobacter, Acidiphilium, Acidisphaera, Acidocella, Acidomonas, Asaia, Craurococcus, Gluconacetobacter, Gluconobacter, Paracraurococcus, Rhodopila, Roseococcus, Roseomonas, Stella, Zavarzinia
- ORDER RHODOBACTERALES
- Very diverse (phenotypically, metabolically, and ecologically). Many photoheterotrophs, but can grow as photoautotrophs, chemotrophs, chemoorganotrophs; metabolism aerobic or facultatively anaerobic, or facultative fermenters
- Rhodobacter, Ahrensia, Amaricoccus, Antarctobacter, Gemmobacter, Hirschia, Hyphomonas, Ketogluconicigenium, Maricaulis, Methylarcula, Octadecabacter, Paracoccus, Rhodobaca, Rhodovulvum, Roseibium, Roseinatronobacter, Roseivivax, Roseobacter, Roseovarius, Rubrimonas, Rugegeria, Sagittula, Staleya, Stappia, Sulfitobacter, Rhodothalassium (incertae sedis)
- ORDER SPHINGOMONADALES
- nonspore-forming, rod, ovoid, or pleomorphic. Free-living; some with flagella. Mostly aerobic; some facultative anaerobes. Some with bacteriochlorophyll a and are facultative phototrophs
- Sphingomonas, Blastomonas, Citromicrobium, Erythrobacter, Erythromicrobium, Erythromonas, Porphyrobacter, Sandaracinobacter, Zymomonas
- ORDER CAULOBACTERIALES
- Oligotrophic and chemoorganotrophic; strictly aerobic. A few with prosthecae.
- Caulobacter, Asticcacaulis, Brevundimonas, Phenylobacterium
- ORDER RHIZOBIALES
- Very diverse; many aerobic and facultative anaerobes. Chemoorganotrophic, lithotrophic. Important N-fixers and nodule-formers in this order.
- Rhizobium, Agrobacterium, Allorhizobium, Carbophilus, Chelatobacter, Ensifer, Sinorhizobium
- Bartonella
- Brucella, Mycoplana, Ochrobactrum
- Phyllobacterium, Aminobacter, Aquamicrobium, Defluvibacter, Candidatus, Mesorhizobium, Pseudaminobacter
- Methylocystis, Albibacter, Methylosinus, Methylopila (incertae sedis)
- Beijerinckia, Chelatococcus, Methylocella
- Bradyrhizobium, Afipia, Agromonas, Blastobacter, Bosea, Nitrobacter, Oligotropha, Rhodoblastus, Rhodopseudomonas
- Hyphomicrobium, Ancalomicrobium, Ancylobacter, Angulomicrobium, Aquabacter, Azorhizobium, Blastochloris, Devosia, Dichotomicrobium, Filomicrobium, Gemmiger, Labrys, Methylorhabdus, Pedomicrobium, Prosthecomicrobium, Rhodomicrobium, Rhodoplanes, Seliberia, Starkeya, Xanthobacter
- Methylobacterium
- Rhodobium
- ORDER RHODOSPIRILLALES
| LITERATURE CITED Black, J. G. 2002. Microbiology, Principles and Explorations. 5th ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York. Brock, T. D., M.T. Madigan, J.M. Martinko, and J. Parker. 1994. Biology of Microorganisms. 7th ed. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Emerson, D., J. A. Rentz, T. G. Lilburn, R. E. Davis, H. Aldrich, C. Chan, and C. L. Moyer. 2007. A novel lineage of Proteobacteria involved in formation of marine Fe-oxidizing microbial mat communities. PLoS ONE. 2007 (8): e667. http://www.plosone.org Gao, B. and R. S. Gupta. 2007. Phylogenetic analysis of proteins that are distinctive of Archaea and its main subgroups and the origin of methanogenesis. BMC Genomics. 8:86. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/8/86. Garrity, G. M., M. Winters, and D. Searles. 2001. Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag. New York. Garrity, G. M., J. A. Bell, and T. G. Lilburn. 2003. Taxonomic Outline of the Prokaryotes. Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. 2nd edition. Release 4.0. Springer-Verlag. New York. pp. 1-397. Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1988. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 2nd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. Stackebrandt, E., R. G. E. Murray, and H. G. Trüper. 1988. Proteobacteria classis nov., a name for the phylogenetic taxon that includes the “Purple Bacteria and Their Relatives”. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 38(3): 321-325. Tudge, C. 2000. The Variety of Life, A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures That Have Ever Lived. Oxford University Press. New York. Williams, K. P., B. W. Sobral, and A. W. Dickerman. 2007. A robust species tree for the Alphaproteobacteria. Journal of Bacteriology. 189(13): 4578-4586. Woese, C. R. and G. E. Fox. 1977. Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 74:5088-5090. Woese, C. R., O. Kandler, and M. L. Wheelis. 1990. Towards a natural system of organisms: Proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 87: 4576-4579. |
| By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 02/07/2012 |
