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Systematics of Sphingomonas Species that Degrade Xenobiotic Pollutants

  • Chapter
Applied Microbial Systematics

Abstract

Until recently, microbiologists were unable to establish a satisfactory prokaryotic phylogeny, a problem that some suggested was insolvable (Stanier & van Niel, 1962). Traditional methods for determining eukaryotic phylogenies according to cell morphology and physiological characteristics are not readily applicable to the classification of prokaryotes. Further, microbiologists have only been able to study those microorganisms that they could cultivate, and this strongly biased the perception of microbial diversity. Another obstacle that hampered the study of prokaryotic phylogeny is what Olsen et al. (1994) described as the “negative definition” of a prokaryote. Prokaryotes were defined as “lacking eukaryotic features,” and such ideas as “if it is not a eukaryote, it is a prokaryote,” dominated the field. With these underlying assumptions, microbiologists ignored the importance of phylogenetic relationships essential in understanding the nature of any organism, and reduced the study of prokaryotic diversity to the question, “How does E. coli differ from eukaryotes?” The characterization of rRNA nucleotide sequences in the early 1980s changed the paradigm.

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  1. Environmental Biotechnology Institute, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-1052, USA

    Martina M. Ederer & Ronald L. Crawford

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  1. Martina M. Ederer
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  1. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Fergus G. Priest

  2. University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Michael Goodfellow

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Ederer, M.M., Crawford, R.L. (2000). Systematics of Sphingomonas Species that Degrade Xenobiotic Pollutants. In: Priest, F.G., Goodfellow, M. (eds) Applied Microbial Systematics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4020-1_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4020-1_12

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