Taxonomy and nomenclature of bacteria with clinical and scientific importance: current concepts for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists

Abstract

Taxonomy is the science of the classification of various living organisms consisting of three independent, but interrelated disciplines, namely classification, nomenclature and identification. With the advent of molecular biological methods and sequencing, a revolution is currently occurring with regards to the reporting of novel taxa and changes in the taxonomy of already described bacterial species. The applications of taxonomic changes can be broad ranging: they may impact the clinical care of patients, through variations in choosing the appropriate antimicrobial susceptibility testing standards or data interpretation, or even their clinical relevance and epidemiology. The aim of this paper was to aid healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical scientists to navigate through the ‘maze’ of bacterial taxonomy, and to aid in finding authentic information regarding the description of taxonomic changes and to present some examples of changes in bacterial taxonomy which have proven to be clinically significant.