MBIO 3470 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Gram-Negative Bacteria, Chemotroph, Phenetics

• School: University of Manitoba
• Department: Microbiology
• Course: MBIO 3470
• Professor: Vladimir Yurkov

Document Summary

Bacterial classifications: phenetic classification: bacteria and placed into groups (taxa) based on shared (mutual) phenotypic and genotypic characters. However, most phonetic classification systems rely primarily on phenotypic, rather than genotypic bacteria. Phenetic classification is also referred to as taxonomy. Sometimes called an artificial system (grouping is based on arbitrary criteria and does not indicate how the different taxa may have evolved) Bacteria are placed into groups based primarily on genetic similarity or genotype. Genotypic similarity indicates: the genome sequence is similar, and it is likely the organisms are descended from a common ancestor. The phylogeny of bacteria is currently an area of extensive research and will be discussed later. A truly phenetic classification that reflects the phylogeny of bacteria and phenotypic characters of the phyletic groups would be ideal (modern polyphasic approach, discussed later) However, the process is quite complicated: the phylogeny of bacteria is, in many cases, quite different from their taxonomy.