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The planctomycetes are budding bacteria forming one of the phylogenetically distinct major phyla of the domain Bacteria defined by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. They are distinctive phenotypically in their budding reproduction and the complete absence of peptidoglycan in their proteinaceous cell walls. Planctomycetes are proving to be of increasing relevance to microbial ecology, due to their ubiquitous distribution in aquatic including marine habitats, to molecular evolution due to their separate and potentially deep-branching position within the Bacteria and potential relations to chlamydiae, and to cell biology, due to their unusual cell wall composition for Bacteria, gene organization, and the occurrence in Gemmata obscuriglobus of a membrane-bounded nucleoid with implications for understanding the eukaryote nucleus and its evolution. All these aspects of the emerging significance of the planctomycetes are reviewed here.
John A. Fuerst (Sat,) studied this question.