Bacterial taxonomy

Bacterial taxonomy is the taxonomy, i.e. the rank-based classification, of bacteria.

In the scientific classification established by Carl von Linné, each species has to be assigned to a genus (binary nomenclature), which in turn is a lower level of a hierarchy of ranks (family, suborder, order, subclass, class, division/phyla, kingdom and domain). In the currently accepted classification of life, there are three domains (Eukaryotes, Bacteria and Archaea), which, in terms of taxonomy, despite following the same principles have several different conventions between them and between their subdivisions as are studied by different disciplines (botany, zoology, mycology and microbiology), for example in zoology there are type specimens, whereas in microbiology there are type strains.

Prokaryotes share many common features, such as lack of nuclear membrane, unicellularity, division by binary-fission and generally small size. The various species differ amongst each other based on several characteristics, allowing their identification and classification. Examples include:

Bacteria were first observed by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1676, using a single-lens microscope of his own design. He called them "animalcules" and published his observations in a series of letters to the Royal Society.O. F. Müller (1773, 1786) described eight species of the genus Vibrio (in Infusoria), three of which were spirilliforms. The term Bacterium (a genus) was introduced much later, by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1838.

...
Wikipedia