Name: Oxyphotobacteria (ex Gibbons and Murray 1978) Murray 1988

Category: Class

Proposed as: class. nov., nom. rev.

Etymology: O.xy.pho.to.bac.te’ri.a. Gr. masc. adj. oxys, acid or sour and in combined words indicating oxygen; Gr. neut. n. phôs (gen. phôtos), light; N.L. neut. pl. n. bacteria, plural of bacterium; N.L. neut. pl. n. Oxyphotobacteria, light-requiring bacteria that produce oxygen (not formed from a genus name)

Pronunciation (Latin), gender: o-xy-p^ho-to-bak-TE-ri-a, neuter

Type order: Chroococcales Cavalier-Smith 2002

Effective publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology, vol. 1., The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.

IJSEM list: Anonymous. Validation list no. 25. Validation of publication of new names and new combinations previously effectively published outside the IJSB. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1988; 38:220-222.

Nomenclatural status: validly published under the ICNP, rejected name

Taxonomic status: synonym

Correct name: Chroococcophyceae Hollerbach et al. 1953

• Synonyms:

  • Name	Kind
    Chamaesiphonophyceae Hollerbach et al. 1953	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code)
    Chroococcophyceae Hollerbach et al. 1953	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code)
    Cyanophyceae Schaffner 1909	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code), illegitimate name, later homonym
    "Prochlorophyceae" Lewin 1977	heterotypic synonym, not validly published
    Cyanophycoidea Walton 1931	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code), descriptive name
    "Chroococcophyceae" Proshkina-Lavrenko and Makarova 1968	heterotypic synonym, not validly published
    Cyanophyceae Hauck 1885	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code), descriptive name
    Cyanophyceae Bennett and Murray 1889	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code), illegitimate name, later homonym
    "Chroococcophyceae" Starmach 1966	heterotypic synonym, not validly published
    "Chroococcophyceae" Wartenberg 1972	heterotypic synonym, not validly published
    Nostocophyceae Christensen 1978	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code)
    Gloeobacteria Cavalier-Smith 2002	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP, rejected name
    Chroobacteria Cavalier-Smith 2002	homotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP, rejected name
    Chamaesiphonophyceae Starmach 1966	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICN (Botanical Code), illegitimate name
    Hormogoneae Cavalier-Smith 2002	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP, rejected name, later homonym
    "Pleurocapsophyceae" Starmach 1966	heterotypic synonym, not validly published

• Notes:
  • 🧕 Murray (1984) assigned this class to the division Gracilicutes Gibbons and Murray 1978 (Approved Lists 1980). Publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology, vol. 1., The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.
  • 🧕 Murray (1984) assigned this class to the phylum "Gracilicutes". Publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology, vol. 1., The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.
  • 🛺 The type order of this class has been placed in the class Chroococcophyceae Hollerbach et al. 1953. Publication: Hollerbach MM, Kosinskaya EK, Polyansky VI. Sinezelenye vodorosli. In: Anonymous NN (eds), Opredelitel presnovodnykh vodoroslej SSSR, Sovetskaya Nauka, Moskva, 1953, p. 652.
  • 🚃 The type order of this class has alternatively been placed in the class Chroobacteria Cavalier-Smith 2002. Publication: Cavalier-Smith T. The neomuran origin of archaebacteria, the negibacterial root of the universal tree and bacterial megaclassification. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2002; 52:7-76. 🇬🇧
  • 🚃 The type order of this class has alternatively been placed in the class Cyanophyceae Hauck 1885. Publication: Hoffmann L, Komárek J, Kastovsky J. System of cyanoprokaryotes (cyanobacteria) - state in 2004. Algological Studies 2005; 117:95-115. 🇱🇺
  • 🚃 The type order of this class has alternatively been placed in the class Cyanophyceae Hauck 1885. Publication: Strunecky O, Ivanova AP, Mares J. An updated classification of cyanobacterial orders and families based on phylogenomic and polyphasic analysis. J Phycol 2023; 59:12-51. 🇨🇿
  • 🙄 This taxon name is occasionally misprinted (or affected by an OCR error) in some sources as: "Oxyophotobacteria".
  • 🧍 Illegitimate according to Tindall (2014): "Neither of the names of these [type] orders has been validly published under the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (Lapage et al., 1992), nor have the genus names on which they are based been validly published.". Publication: Tindall BJ. Names at the rank of class, subclass and order, their typification and current status: Supplementary information to Opinion 79. Judicial Commission of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2014; 64:3599-3602. 🇩🇪
  • 🧍 Rejected name (Opinion 128). Nomen dubium (Rule 56a). Part of "misfitting megaclassification". Publication: Goker M. Solving the remaining problems with names of classes. Request for an Opinion. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2022; 72:5605. 🇩🇪
  • 🧍 The order Chroococcales Cavalier-Smith was validly published in 2002. However, this order is illegitimate because its type genus "Chroococcus" is not validly published under the Rules of the Bacteriological Code (1990 Revision). Publication: Oren A, Arahal DR, Christensen H, Goker M, Manaia CM, Moore ERB. International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. Prokaryotic Code (2025 Revision). Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2026; 76:6979. 🇮🇱
  • 🧍 Irregularly formed name (not formed from the stem of the name of the nomenclatural type). According to the List Editor of the IJSEM, the type order, "Chroococcales", has been previously established by Gibbons and Murray. However, the type order "Chroococcales" Gibbons and Murray is not validly published. Publication: Anonymous. Validation list no. 25. Validation of publication of new names and new combinations previously effectively published outside the IJSB. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1988; 38:220-222.

Parent taxon: Cyanobacteriota Oren et al. 2022

Assigned by: LPSN automated production system. The following publication is only one of the sources consulted. It may or may not mention this taxon name. — Aleksovski B, Krstić S, Guiry MD. The names of phyla and classes of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria, cyanophytes) and a typified name: Cyanobacteriophyta Oren, Mareš et Rippka. Fottea 2025; 25:212-217. 🇮🇪

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Record number: 58