Chloroflexota
A phylum of bacteria with diverse metabolic and structural traits.
The Chloroflexota are a bacterial phylum often referred to as green sulfur bacteria. This group includes a wide variety of forms: some are aerobic thermophiles that thrive in high heat and use oxygen, others are anoxygenic phototrophs that rely on light for energy, and still others are anaerobic halorespirers that use toxic halogenated compounds—like chlorinated ethenes or polychlorinated biphenyls—as electron acceptors. All Chloroflexota are monoderms, meaning they have a single cell membrane and lack an outer membrane, yet they can stain either gram positive or gram negative.
- taxon_name_created
- 2001
- type_genus
- Chloroflexus
- phylum_classes
- eight distinct classes
- cell_structure
- monoderms
- gram_stain
- both gram positive and gram negative
- key_metabolisms
- aerobic thermophily, anoxygenic phototrophy, anaerobic halorespiration
Lore & Background
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 divided Eubacteria into 11 divisions based on 16S ribosomal RNA 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. Chloroflexota being a deep branching phylum, it was considered in Volume One of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology to include a single class with the same name. Since 2001, however, new classes have been created thanks to newly discovered species, and the phylum Chloroflexi is now divided into several classes.
Reader's Guide
Recent phylogenetic analysis of the Chloroflexota has found very weak support for the grouping together of the different classes currently part of the phylum. The six classes that make up the phylum did not consistently form a well-supported clade in phylogenetic trees based on concatenated sequences for large datasets of proteins, and no conserved signature indels were identified that were uniquely shared by the entire phylum. However, the classes Chloroflexi and Thermomicrobia were found to group together consistently by both the usual phylogenetic means and the identification of shared conserved signature indels in the 50S ribosomal protein L19 and the enzyme UDP-glucose 4-epimerase. It has been suggested that the phylum Chloroflexi sensu stricto should comprise only the classes Chloroflexi and Thermomicrobia, and the other four classes ('Dehalococcoidetes,' Anaerolineae, Caldilineae and Ktedonobacteria) may represent one or more independent phyla branching in the neighborhood of the Chloroflexi.
Did You Know?
- The phylum Chloroflexota are monoderms, having one cell membrane with no outer membrane, yet species stain both gram positive and gram negative.
- The taxon name was created in the 2001 edition of Volume 1 of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology.
- The phylum includes anaerobic halorespirers that use toxic chlorinated ethenes and polychlorinated biphenyls as electron acceptors.
- Recent phylogenetic analysis found very weak support for grouping the different classes of Chloroflexota together.
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