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| Auribacterota | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | Auribacterota Williams et al. 2022 |
| Classes | |
"Candidatus Ancaeobacteria" Williams et al. 2022 "Candidatus Auribacteria" Williams et al. 2022 "Candidatus Erginobacteria" Williams et al. 2022 "Candidatus Tritonobacteria" Williams et al. 2022 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Auribacterota is a candidate bacterial phylum of uncultured anaerobes first found in gold mine fluids. Name comes from Latin ''aurum'' (gold). Known only from metagenomes. [1] [2]
Strict fermenters. Eat sugars and amino acids, make H2 and H2S. No oxygen use. Some have gas vesicles or pili. [2]
Live in anoxic water columns, sediments, subsurface. Common in Ace Lake, Antarctica (up to 4% of microbes). [2] Help break down dead stuff and cycle sulfur. [3]
Four candidate classes. Type species: "''Ca.'' Auribacter fodinae".
The phylum Auribacterota is not validly published and remains a candidate phylum. It was proposed by Williams et al. (2022) based on metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from Ace Lake, a meromictic lake in Antarctica. The taxonomy includes four candidate classes, each containing novel genera and species identified from high-quality MAGs:
Additional genera from Ace Lake include "Candidatus Euphemobacter frigidus" and "Candidatus Theseobacter exili". Phylogenetic analyses place Auribacterota among the "microbial dark matter" phyla, distinct from well-characterized bacterial lineages.