Lost in taxonomy: Why bacterial type strains are the anchor we need

Lost in taxonomy: Why bacterial type strains are the anchor we need Professor David Ussery and Dr. Ake Vastermark, bioinformatics and microbial taxonomy experts at Oklahoma State University, introduce the challenges of defining bacterial species in an era of rapidly expanding genomic data. Their article highlights how modern genome-based tools can bring clarity to this evolving field. How does one define a bacterial species? This is not as easy as it might sound – biology is messy and the species boundaries are fuzzy. Bacteria divide asexually and can live almost anywhere, and their genomes contain many mobile elements, viruses, and plasmids. Having said that, it is important to know ‘who is there’ in terms of the microbial composition. And knowing ‘who is there’ implies knowing the names (some sort of unique identifiers).