Gracilibacteria

Gracilibacteria
Scientific classification
Domain:
(unranked):
Phylum:
"Gracilibacteria"

Rinke et al. 2013
Genus:
"Ca. Altimarinus"
Type species
"Ca. A. pacificus"
Rinke et al. 2013

Gracilibacteria is a bacterial candidate phylum formerly known as GN02, BD1-5, or SN-2. It is part of the Candidate Phyla Radiation and the Patescibacteria group.

The first representative of the Gracilibacteria phylum was reported in 1999 after being recovered from a deep-sea sediment sample. The representative 16S rRNA sequence was referred to as "BD1-5" (sample BD1, sequence 5) and while it was noted that it displayed low sequence identity to any known 16S rRNA gene, it was not proposed as a new phylum at this time.[1] In 2006, representatives of Gracilibacteria were recovered from a hypersaline microbial mat from Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico and proposed as a new phylum "GN02".[2] The name "Gracilibacteria" was proposed for the BD1-5/GN02 lineage in 2013, based on a substantial expansion of the genomic representation of this phylum.[3][4]

The first Gracilibacteria genome was recovered from an acetate-amended aquifer (Rifle, CO, USA) using culture-independent, genome-resolved metagenomic techniques in 2012.[5] Genomic analyses suggest that members of the Gracilibacteria phylum have limited metabolisms and are likely symbionts or endosymbionts.[3] Members of Gracilibacteria use an alternative genetic code in which UGA encodes the glycine amino acid instead of a stop codon[6]

Phylogeny

120 marker proteins based GTDB 10-RS226[7][8][9]
"Gracilibacteria" cluster
"Vampirococcia"

"Ca. Altimarinus" {BD1-5: UBA6164}

"Absconditicoccaceae" {"Absconditabacterales"}

"Gracilibacteria"

"Abawacabacteriales" (RBG-16-42-10)

"Peregrinibacterales" (UBA1369)

"Fallacibacteriales" (UBA4473)

"Peribacteraceae" {"Peribacterales"}

Taxonomy

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN)[10] and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).[11]

Clade "Gracilibacteria" cluster

  • Class "Vampirococcia" Pallen, Rodriguez-R & Alikhan 2022 (SR1; JAEDAM01)
    • Order "Absconditibacterales" Yakimov et al. 2022 corrig. Kostovski, Oren & Göker 2025
      • Family "Absconditicoccaceae" Yakimov et al. 2022
        • ?Genus "Candidatus Strigamonas" Bouderka et al. 2024
          • Species "Ca. S. methylophilicida" Bouderka et al. 2024
        • Genus "Candidatus Absconditicoccus" Yakimov et al. 2022
          • Species "Ca. A. praedator" Yakimov et al. 2022
        • Genus "Candidatus Vampirococcus" Guerrero et al. 1986 non Kizina 2017
          • Species "Ca. V. lugosii" Moreira et al. 2021
    • Order BD1-5
      • Family UBA6164
        • Genus "Candidatus' Altimarinus" Rinke et al. 2013
          • Species "Ca.' A. pacificus" Rinke et al. 2013
  • Class "Gracilibacteriia" Yakimov et al. 2022
    • Order "Peribacterales" Anantharaman et al. 2016
      • Family "Peribacteraceae" Anantharaman et al. 2016
        • Genus "Candidatus Peribacter" Anantharaman et al. 2016
          • Species "Ca. P. riflensis" Anantharaman et al. 2016

References

  1. ^ Li, Lina; Kato, Chiaki; Horikoshi, Koki (1999-05-01). "Bacterial diversity in deep-sea sediments from different depths". Biodiversity & Conservation. 8 (5): 659–677. doi:10.1023/A:1008848203739. ISSN 1572-9710. S2CID 25820840.
  2. ^ Ley, Ruth E.; Harris, J. Kirk; Wilcox, Joshua; Spear, John R.; Miller, Scott R.; Bebout, Brad M.; Maresca, Julia A.; Bryant, Donald A.; Sogin, Mitchell L.; Pace, Norman R. (2006-05-01). "Unexpected Diversity and Complexity of the Guerrero Negro Hypersaline Microbial Mat". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 72 (5): 3685–3695. Bibcode:2006ApEnM..72.3685L. doi:10.1128/AEM.72.5.3685-3695.2006. ISSN 0099-2240. PMC 1472358. PMID 16672518.
  3. ^ a b Sieber, Christian M. K.; Paul, Blair G.; Castelle, Cindy J.; Hu, Ping; Tringe, Susannah G.; Valentine, David L.; Andersen, Gary L.; Banfield, Jillian F. (2019-11-12). "Unusual Metabolism and Hypervariation in the Genome of a Gracilibacterium (BD1-5) from an Oil-Degrading Community". mBio. 10 (6). doi:10.1128/mbio.02128-19. ISSN 2150-7511. PMC 6851277. PMID 31719174.
  4. ^ Rinke, Christian; Schwientek, Patrick; Sczyrba, Alexander; Ivanova, Natalia N.; Anderson, Iain J.; Cheng, Jan-Fang; Darling, Aaron; Malfatti, Stephanie; Swan, Brandon K.; Gies, Esther A.; Dodsworth, Jeremy A. (July 2013). "Insights into the phylogeny and coding potential of microbial dark matter". Nature. 499 (7459): 431–437. Bibcode:2013Natur.499..431R. doi:10.1038/nature12352. hdl:10453/27467. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23851394.
  5. ^ Wrighton, K. C.; Thomas, B. C.; Sharon, I.; Miller, C. S.; Castelle, C. J.; VerBerkmoes, N. C.; Wilkins, M. J.; Hettich, R. L.; Lipton, M. S.; Williams, K. H.; Long, P. E. (2012-09-27). "Fermentation, Hydrogen, and Sulfur Metabolism in Multiple Uncultivated Bacterial Phyla". Science. 337 (6102): 1661–1665. Bibcode:2012Sci...337.1661W. doi:10.1126/science.1224041. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 23019650. S2CID 10362580.
  6. ^ Hanke, Anna; Hamann, Emmo; Sharma, Ritin; Geelhoed, Jeanine S.; Hargesheimer, Theresa; Kraft, Beate; Meyer, Volker; Lenk, Sabine; Osmers, Harald; Wu, Rong; Makinwa, Kofi (2014-05-16). "Recoding of the stop codon UGA to glycine by a BD1-5/SN-2 bacterium and niche partitioning between Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria in a tidal sediment microbial community naturally selected in a laboratory chemostat". Frontiers in Microbiology. 5: 231. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2014.00231. ISSN 1664-302X. PMC 4032931. PMID 24904545.
  7. ^ "GTDB release 10-RS226". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 1 May 2025.
  8. ^ "bac120_r226.sp_label". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 1 May 2025.
  9. ^ "Taxon History". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 1 May 2025.
  10. ^ Desulfacinum in LPSN; Freese, H. M.; Meier-Kolthoff, J. P.; Sardà Carbasse, J.; Afolayan, A. O.; Göker, M. (29 October 2025). "TYGS and LPSN in 2025: a Global Core Biodata Resource for genome-based classification and nomenclature of prokaryotes within DSMZ Digital Diversity". Nucleic Acids Research. 53: D1–D12. doi:10.1093/nar/gkaf1110.
  11. ^ Schoch CL; et al. "Desulfacinum". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) taxonomy database. Retrieved 2025-06-05.