GENERAL BACTERIOLOGY:

BACTERIAL TAXONOMY
 Learning objectives

At the end of the session, the students will be able to understand:

▰ Bacterial taxonomy, classification and nomenclature.

▰ Medically important bacterial infections

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
BACTERIAL TAXONOMY

1. Classification: Bacteria - arranged into taxonomic groups - based on

biochemical, physiological, genetic, and morphological properties.

2. Nomenclature: Naming - according to characteristics.

3. Identification: Of an unknown taxon and identify the causative agent of

disease.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
BACTERIAL
CLASSIFICATION
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BACTERIAL CLASSIFICATION

▰ Cavalier and Smith’s six kingdoms classification (1998) - Recent

taxonomic classification.

▻ Most accepted classification.

▻ Divides all living structures into six kingdoms—Bacteria, Protozoa,

Chromista, Plantae, Fungi and Animalia.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Taxonomic classification of living beings
Linnaeus Haeckel Chatton Copeland Whittaker Woese et al. Cavalier–Smith
1735 1866 1925 1938 1969 1990 1998

2 Kingdoms 3 Kingdoms 2 Empires 4 Kingdoms 5 Kingdoms 3 Domains 6 Kingdoms

- Protista Prokaryota Monera Monera Bacteria Bacteria

Archaea
Eukaryota Protista Protista Eucarya Protozoa

Vegetabilia Plantae Chromista

Plantae Plantae Plantae
Fungi Fungi
Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
BACTERIAL CLASSIFICATION
(Cont..)
Kingdom Bacteria is divided into: Taxa
Ends with suffix Taxonomic name
Kingdom -om Bacteria
▰ Phylum/division Phylum Proteobacteria
▰ Class Class -ia Gammaproteobacteria
Subclass -idae
▰ Order Order -ales Enterobacterales
Suborder -ineae
▰ Suborder
Family -aceae Enterobacteriaceae
▰ Family Subfamily -oideae
Tribe -eae Escherichieae
▰ Tribe Subtribe -inae
▰ Genus and Genus Escherichia
Species E. coli
▰ Species.
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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Principle Used to Classify Bacteria
Mainly three approaches:

1. Phylogenetic

2. Adansonian

3. Molecular.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Phylogenetic Classification
▰ Hierarchical classification representing a branching tree-like arrangement

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Phylogenetic Classification (Cont..)
Characteristics - given importance are:

1. Morphology —cocci or bacilli

2. Staining property - gram-positive and gram-negative

3. Cultural characteristics – LF or NLF colonies

4. Biochemical reactions - e.g. COPS and CONS

5. Antigenic structure - e.g. somatic antigen

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Adansonian (phenetic) Classification
▰ Proposed by Michel Adanson (1774) - classifies organisms giving equal
weight to every character.

▰ Used numeric algorithms like cluster analysis rather than subjective

evaluation.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Molecular Classification

▰ Based on - degree of genetic relatedness of different organisms.

▰ Guanine + cytosine (G + C) content of bacteria - estimated after

extracting DNA from pure bacterial culture.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
NOMENCLATUR
E
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NOMENCLATURE

▰ Concerned with designating scientific names to taxa.

▰ Based on binomial nomenclature - proposed by Swedish botanist - Carolus

Linnaeus.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Binomial nomenclature

▰ Scientific name of bacteria - comprises genus name (starts with a capital

letter) and species name.

▰ Both genus and species - written in italic or underlined; e.g.

Staphylococcus aureus or Staphylococcus aureus.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Binomial nomenclature (Cont..)

Genus and species - coined based on some property of the bacteria; eg:

▰ Staphylococcus aureus - named after - arrangement in cluster (Staphyle -

bunch of grapes) and pigmentation (aureus - golden yellow).

▰ Neisseria meningitidis - named after - discoverer (U. Neisser) and the

disease it causes (meningitis)

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Taxonomic name changes of medically-important
microorganisms

Old name New name

Bacteria
Clostridium difficile Clostridioides difficile
Haemophilus aphrophilus Aggregatibacter aphrophilus
Haemophilus paraphrophilus Aggregatibacter paraphrophilus
Enterobacter aerogenes Klebsiella aerogenes
Propionibacterium acnes Cutibacterium acnes

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Taxonomic name changes of medically-important
microorganisms

Old name New name

Fungi
Absidia corymbifera Lichtheimia corymbifera
Madurella grisea Trematosphaeria grisea
Penicillium marneffei Talaromyces marneffei
Geotrichum candidum Dipodascus geotrichum
Rhizopus oryzae Rhizopus arrhizus

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Taxonomic name changes of medically-important
microorganisms

Old name New name

Parasites

Isospora belli Cystoisospora belli

Balantidium coli Neobalantidium coli

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Type Cultures

▰ International reference laboratories - designated as type culture reference

centers.

▰ Maintain representative cultures of the established species - show all

standard characteristics of original strain.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Type Cultures (Cont..)

Two most important type collection centers of the world are:

▰ ATCC (American Type Culture Collection), USA

▰ NCTC (National Collection of Type Cultures), UK.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
BACTERIAL INFECTIONS
MEDICALLY
IMPORTANT TO MAN
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BACTERIAL INFECTIONS MEDICALLY
IMPORTANT TO MAN

Based on Gram stain - bacterial infections - grouped into - infections caused

by:

▰ Gram-positive cocci and bacilli

▰ Gram-negative cocci and bacilli

▰ Miscellaneous bacteria (that do not take up/poorly take up Gram stain)

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Medically important bacterial pathogens to man
Gram-Positive Cocci

 Staphylococcus species—S. aureus, coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS)

 Streptococcus species—S. pyogenes, S. agalactiae, streptococci, Enterococcus, Viridans streptococci, S.
pneumoniae
Gram-Negative Cocci

 Neisseria: N. meningitidis, N. gonorrhoeae

Gram-Positive Bacilli

 Corynebacterium species—C. diphtheriae

 Bacillus species—B. anthracis
 Mycobacterium species—M. tuberculosis, Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM), M. leprae
 Miscellaneous gram-positive bacilli—Listeria, Actinomycetes and Nocardia

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Medically important bacterial pathogens to man
(Cont..)

Gram-Negative Bacilli
 Enterobacteriaceae - Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Citrobacter,
Serratia, Proteus, Providencia, Morganella, Shigella, Salmonella, Yersinia.
 Non-fermenting gram-negative bacilli - Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Burkholderia,
Stenotrophomonas
 Vibrio and related genera - Vibrio, Aeromonas
 Fastidious gram-negative bacilli - Haemophilus, Bordetella, Brucella
 Miscellaneous gram-negative bacilli - Campylobacter, Helicobacter, Legionella,
Klebsiella
granulomatis, Gardnerella vaginalis.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Medically important bacterial pathogens to man
(Cont..)

Anaerobic Bacterial Infections

 Sporing anaerobes - Clostridium species such as C. perfringens, C. tetani, C. botulinum,
C. difficile
 Non-sporing anaerobes - Peptostreptococcus, Bacteroides, Prevotella, Porphyromonas
Miscellaneous Bacteria

 Spirochetes - Treponema, Borrelia, Leptospira

 Rickettsiae and related genera - Rickettsia, Orientia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia
 Chlamydiae - C. trachomatis, C. psittaci, C. pneumoniae
 Mycoplasma - M. pneumoniae

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Questions:
Q1. Most recent taxonomic classification of bacteria is based on?

a. Haeckel – 3 kingdom classification

b. Copeland – 4 kingdom classification

c. Whittaker - 5 kingdom classification

d. Cavalier and Smith’s - 6 kingdom classification

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
Questions (Cont..):
Q2. Which of the following is correct sentence?

a. Adansonian classification - represents a branching tree-like arrangement

b. Phylogenetic classification - genetic relatedness of different organisms

c. In binomial nomenclature - scientific name of bacteria comprises of both genus

and species names.

d. Both genus and species should be written in capitals.

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Essentials of Medical Microbiology by Apurba S Sastry © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers