List of bacterial genera named after personal names

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Many bacterial species are named after people, either the discoverer or a famous person in the field of microbiology. For example, Salmonella is named after D.E. Salmon, who discovered it (albeit as "Bacillus typhi"[1]).[2]

For the generic epithet, all names derived from people must be in the female nominative case, either by changing the ending to -a or to the diminutive -ella, depending on the name.[3]

For the specific epithet, the names can be converted into either adjectival form (adding -nus (m.), -na (f.), -num (n.) according to the gender of the genus name) or the genitive of the Latinised name.[3]

See also

References


  1. SCHROETER (J.). In – F. COHN (ed.), Kryptogamenflora von Schlesien. Band 3, Heft 3, Pilze. J.U. Kern's Verlag, Breslau, 1885–1889, pp. 1–814.
  2. Salmonella entry in LPSN [Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.]
  3. 3.0 3.1 Help! Latin! How to avoid the most common mistakes while giving Latin names to newly discovered prokaryotes. Microbiología (Sociedad Española de Microbiología), 1996, 12, 473–475.