Report of the ICSB Taxonomic Subcommittee on Gram-Negative Anaerobic Rods: Proposal That the Saccharolytic and Asaccharolytic Strains at Present Classified in the Species Bacteroides melaninogenicus (Oliver and Wherry) Be Reclassified in Two Species as Bacteroides melaninogenicus and Bacteroides asaccharolyticus

Abstract

The asaccharolytic and saccharolytic strains at present classified together in 1 species, B. melaninogenicus, differ in a number of properties including their DNA base ratios. It is proposed that the asaccharolytic strains (guanine-plus-cytosine content, 50-54 mol%) should be assigned to a separate species, B. asaccharolyticus, whereas the saccharolytic strains (guanine-plus-cytosine content, 40-45 mol%) should still be classified in the 2 subspecies B. melaninogenicus ssp. melaninogenicus and B. melaninogenicus ssp. intermedius, although further study is required to complete the characterization of these 2 groups.