''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'' is the main resource for determining the identity of prokaryotic organisms, emphasizing
bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...
l species, using every characterizing aspect.
The manual was published subsequent to the ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', though the latter is still published as a guide for identifying unknown bacteria. First published in 1923 by
David Hendricks Bergey, it is used to classify bacteria based on their structural and functional attributes by arranging them into specific familial orders. However, this process has become more
empirical in recent years.
The ''Taxonomic Outline of Bacteria and Archaea'' is a derived publication indexing taxon names from version two of the manual. It used to be available for free from the Bergey's manual trust website until September 2018.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
provides an alternative version that indexes
NamesforLife records.
The five-volume BMSB is officially replaced by ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic of Archaea and Bacteria'' (BMSAB), a continuously-updated online book, since 2015.
Organization
The change in volume set to "''Systematic Bacteriology''" came in a new contract in 1980, whereupon the new style included "relationships between organisms" and had "expanded scope" overall. This new style was picked up for a four-volume set that first began publishing in 1984. The information in the volumes was separated as:
''Volume 1'' included information on all types of
Gram-negative bacteria
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. They are characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wa ...
that were considered to have "medical and industrial importance." ''Volume 2'' included information on all types of
Gram-positive bacteria. ''Volume 3'' deals with all of the remaining, slightly different Gram-negative bacteria, along with the
Archaea. ''Volume 4'' has information on
filamentous actinomycetes
The Actinomycetales is an order of Actinomycetota. A member of the order is often called an actinomycete. Actinomycetales are generally gram-positive and anaerobic and have mycelia in a filamentous and branching growth pattern. Some actinomycete ...
and other, similar bacteria.
The current volumes differ drastically from previous volumes in that many higher taxa are not defined in terms of phenotype, but solely on 16S phylogeny, as is the case of the classes within Proteobacteria.
[
The current grouping is:
* Volume 1 (2001): The Archaea and the deeply branching and phototrophic Bacteria]
* Volume 2 (2005): The Proteobacteria—divided into three books:
** 2A: Introductory essays
** 2B: The Gammaproteobacteria
** 2C: Other classes of Proteobacteria
* Volume 3 (2009): The Firmicutes
* Volume 4 (2011): The Bacteroidetes, Spirochaetes, Tenericutes
Mycoplasmatota is a phylum of bacteria that contains the class Mollicutes. The phylum was originally named "Tenericutes" (''tener cutis'': soft skin). Notable genera include '' Mycoplasma'', ''Spiroplasma'', ''Ureaplasma'', and ''Candidatus'' Ph ...
(Mollicutes), Acidobacteria, Fibrobacteres, Fusobacteria, Dictyoglomi, Gemmatimonadetes, Lentisphaerae, Verrucomicrobia, Chlamydiae, and Planctomycetes
* Volume 5 (in two parts) (2012): The Actinobacteria
Bergey's Manual Trust
Bergey's Manual Trust was established in 1936 to sustain the publication of '' Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'' and supplementary reference works. The Trust also recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to bacterial taxonomy by presentation of the Bergey Award and Bergey Medal, jointly supported by funds from the Trust and from Springer, the publishers of the Manual.
Bergey's Manual Trust and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. co-publish the online encyclopedia '' Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria'' (BMSAB). On 2019, the Trust decided to include phylogenomic in the BMSAB using the classification provided by the Genome Taxonomy Database
The Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) is an online database that maintains information on a proposed nomenclature of prokaryotes, following a phylogenomic approach based on a set of conserved single-copy proteins. In addition to breaking up parap ...
(GTDB).
Critical reception
The ''Annals of Internal Medicine
''Annals of Internal Medicine'' is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world. ''Annals'' publishes content relevan ...
'' described the volumes as "clearly written, precise, and easy to read" and "particularly designed for those interested in taxonomy.""Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology"
''Book Reviews, Notes, and Listings'', Annals of Internal Medicine
''Annals of Internal Medicine'' is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world. ''Annals'' publishes content relevan ...
Editions
''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology''
* Bergey, D.H., Harrison, F.C., Breed, R.S., Hammer, B.W. & Huntoon, F.M. (eds., 1923). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 1st ed., The Williams & Wilkins Co, Baltimore, 442 p.
* Bergey, D.H., Harrison, F.C., Breed, R.S., Hammer, B.W. & Huntoon, F.M. (eds., 1925). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 2nd ed., The Williams & Wilkins Co, Baltimore, 462 p.
* Bergey, D.H., Harrison, F.C., Breed, R.S., Hammer, B.W. & Huntoon, F.M. (eds., 1930). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 3rd., The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 589 p.
* Bergey, D.H., Breed, R.S., Hammer, B.W., Huntoon, F.M., Murray, E.G.D. & Harrison, F.C. (eds., 1934). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 4th ed., The Williams & Wilkins Co, Baltimore.
* Bergey, D.H., Breed, R.S., Murray, E.G.D. & Hitchens, A.P. (eds., 1939). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 5th ed., The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore.
* Breed, R.S., Murray, E.G.D. & Hitchens, A.P. (eds., 1948). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 6th ed., The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore
* Breed, R.S., Murray, E.G.D. & Smith, N.R. (eds., 1957). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 7th ed., The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore
* Buchanan, R.E. & Gibbons, N.R. (eds., 1974). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 8th ed., Williams & Wilkins. Baltimore.
* Holt, John G. (eds., 1994). ''Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 9th ed., Williams & Wilkins. Baltimore. .
''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 1st ed.
* Krieg, N.R. & Holt, J.G. (eds., 1984). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 1st ed., vol. 1, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
* Sneath, P.H.A., Mair, N.S., Sharpe, M.E. & Holt, J.G. (eds., 1986). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 1st ed., vol. 2, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore.
* Staley, J.T., Bryant, M.P., Pfennig, N. & Holt, J.G. (eds., 1989). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 1st ed., vol. 3, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
* Williams, S.T., Sharpe, M.E. & Holt, J.G. (eds., 1989). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 1st ed., vol. 4, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 2nd ed.
* Garrity, G.M., Boone, D.R. & Castenholz, R.W. (eds., 2001). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 2nd ed., vol. 1, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY
* Brenner, D.J., Krieg, N.R., Staley, J.T. & Garrity, G.M. (eds., 2005). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 2nd ed., vol. 2, parts A, B and C, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.
* Vos, P., Garrity, G., Jones, D., Krieg, N.R., Ludwig, W., Rainey, F.A., Schleifer, K.-H. & Whitman, W.B. (eds., 2009). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 2nd ed., vol. 3, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.
* Krieg, N.R., Ludwig, W., Whitman, W.B., Hedlund, B.P., Paster, B.J., Staley, J.T., Ward, N. & Brown, D. (eds., 2010). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 2nd ed., vol. 4, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.
* Whitman, W.B., Goodfellow, M., Kämpfer, P., Busse, H.-J., Trujillo, M.E., Ludwig, W. & Suzuki, K.-i. (eds., 2012). ''Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology'', 2nd ed., vol. 5, parts A and B, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.
Other
* Buchanan, R.E., Holt, J.G. & Lessel Jr, E.F. (1966). ''Index Bergeyana: An Annotated Alphabetic Listing of Names of the Taxa of the Bacteria''. The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, Md.
* Holt, J.G. (ed., 1977). ''The Shorter Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology'', 8th ed., The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, Md.
* Gibbons, N.E., Pattee, K.B. & Holt, J.G. (eds., 1981). ''Supplement to Index Bergeyana''. The Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, Md.
*
References
External links
Bergey's Manual Trust Home PageBergey's Manual Identification Flow ChartsBook Information
{{Bacteria classification
Bacteriology