The Contentious Taxonomy of Mollicutes
Daniel R. Brown and Janet M. Bradbury
from: Mollicutes: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis (Edited by: Glenn F. Browning and Christine Citti). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2014)
Abstract
Bacterial systematics is energized by an inherent tension arising from its obligations to respect the dignity of taxa established in the past while maintaining sufficient flexibility to accommodate the advance of knowledge. The taxonomy of Mollicutes has been contentious from its inception, reflecting the challenges in cultivating the organisms axenically, early controversy over what form of life they exemplify, competing systems of nomenclature, chronological misfortune in the discovery of types, evolutionary anomalies, the sometimes enigmatic International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the usually vague species concept for prokaryotes. Their present taxonomy consequently bears acknowledged imperfections, but recent advances in genome-based systematics offer hope for future resolution of some current controversies read more ...
