ABSTRACT
Although many organisms in the domain Bacteria can be grown and studied in the laboratory, the overwhelming majority are known only by genetic information obtained by direct analysis of DNA in environmental samples. Thus, there is a large discrepancy in the extent of our knowledge of the properties of the various members of the Bacteria. The concept of the rare biosphere developed from the first use of high-throughput sequencing as part of the International Census of Marine. Microbiologists have adopted the binomial system of Latin names first developed by Linnaeus for classification of plants and animals, but the concept of a bacterial species is very different. A few guidelines may help to navigate the plethora of Latin bacterial and archaeal names. Orders and families take their name from the stem of the name of the type genus, and the suffix indicates the rank; families end in -aceae, orders in -ales, and classes in -ia or -ea.