Chloroflexi | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Bacteria |
Phylum: |
Chloroflexi (Garrity and Holt 2002) Hugenholtz and Stackebrandt 2004 |
Classes | |
Synonyms | |
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The Chloroflexi or Chlorobacteria are a phylum of bacteria containing isolates with a diversity of phenotypes including members that are aerobic thermophiles, which use oxygen and grow well in high temperatures, anoxygenic phototrophs, which use light for photosynthesis (green non-sulfur bacteria), and anaerobic halorespirers, which uses halogenated organics (such as the toxic chlorinated ethenes and polychlorinated biphenyls) as energy sources.
Whereas most Bacteria, in terms of diversity, are diderms and stain Gram negative with the exception of the Firmicutes (low CG Gram positives), Actinobacteria (high CG gram positives) and the Deinococcus–Thermus group (Gram positive, but diderms with thick peptidoglycan), the members of the phylum Chloroflexi are monoderms, but stain mostly Gram negative.
The taxon name was created in the 2001 edition of Volume 1 of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology and is the Latin plural of the name Chloroflexus, the name of the type genus of the phylum, a common practice.
In 1987, Carl Woese, regarded as the forerunner of the molecular phylogeny revolution, divided Eubacteria into 11 divisions based on 16S ribosomal RNA (SSU) sequences and grouped the genera Chloroflexus, Herpetosiphon and Thermomicrobium into the "Green non-sulfur bacteria and relatives", which was temporarily renamed as "Chloroflexi" in Volume One of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology.