Bacteriology is the branch of microbiology that focuses on bacteria. Bacteria are named according to the binomial Linnean system that uses genus and species. For example, regarding the name of the well-known bacteria Escherichia coli, Escherichia is the genus and coli is the species name.
Important rules regarding nomenclature of Bacteria
- Italicize family, genus, species and variety or subspecies of bacteria.
- Do not italicize kingdom, phylum, class, order, and suborder.
- Begin kingdom, phylum, class, order, suborder, family, and genus with a capital letter.
- If a generic plural for an organism exists, do not captalize nor italicize.
Escherichia coli
Family: Enterobacteriaceae Order: Enterobacterales
Generic plural name: streptococci, staphylococci, mycobacteria
Binary genus-species combinations are always used in the singular. Genus used alone (capitalized and italicized) is usually used in the singular, but it may be used in the plural (not italicized) if it refers to all species within that genus.
Salmonella enterica is…
Salmonellae are ubiquitous…
In a hospital laboratory, the bacteriology section identifies pathogenic bacteria in a clinical sample, isolates them in an appropriate culture media, identifies them using different biochemical or molecular tests, and also determines the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns (including MIC determination) of the isolates.
