Name: Rhodococcus Zopf 1891 (Approved Lists 1980)

Category: Genus

Proposed as: gen. nov.

Etymology: Rho.do.coc’cus. Gr. neut. n. rhodon, the rose; N.L. masc. n. coccus, coccus; from Gr. masc. n. kokkos, grain, seed; N.L. masc. n. Rhodococcus, a red coccus

Gender, pronunciation: masculine (stem: Rhodococc-), r^ho-do-KOK-kus

Type species: Rhodococcus rhodochrous (Zopf 1891) Tsukamura 1974 (Approved Lists 1980)

Conduct genome-based taxonomy of genus at TYGS

16S rRNA gene: Analyse FASTA

Effective publication: Zopf W. Über Ausscheidung von Fettfarbstoffen (Lipochromen) seitens gewisser Spaltpilze. Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 1891; 9:22-28.

IJSEM list: Skerman VBD, McGowan V, Sneath PHA. Approved lists of bacterial names. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1980; 30:225-420.

Nomenclatural status: validly published under the ICNP, conserved name

Taxonomic status: correct name

Risk group: 2

• Synonyms:

  • Name	Kind
    "Prescottella" Jones et al. 2013	heterotypic synonym, not validly published
    Prescottella Sangal et al. 2022	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP
    Rhodococcoides Val-Calvo and Vázquez-Boland 2024	heterotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP
    "Prescottia" Jones et al. 2013	heterotypic synonym, not validly published

• Emendations:
  • Val-Calvo and Vázquez-Boland 2023 Val-Calvo J, Vazquez-Boland JA. Mycobacteriales taxonomy using network analysis-aided, context-uniform phylogenomic approach for non-subjective genus demarcation. mBio 2023; 14:e0220723. 🇬🇧 Oren A, Göker M. List of changes in taxonomic opinion no. 40. Notification of changes in taxonomic opinion previously published outside the IJSEM. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2024; 74:6482.
    Notes:
    • ⊖ Emendation accompanied by the removal of 7 species from the genus.

• Notes:
  • 🧕 Bergey et al. (1923) assigned this genus to the tribe "Micrococceae". Publication: Waksman SA. Genus III. Actinomyces Harz,. In: Bergey DH, Harrison FC, Breed RS, Hammer BW, Huntoon FM (eds), Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, 1st ed., The Williams & Wilkins Co, Baltimore, 1923, p. 339-371.
  • 🧕 Goodfellow and Williams (1983) assigned this genus to the uncategorized "Nocardioform" Goodfellow and Williams 1983. Publication: Goodfellow M, Williams ST. Ecology of actinomycetes. Annu Rev Microbiol 1983; 37:189-216.
  • 🧕 Komarek and Golubic (1990) assigned this genus to the family Chroococcaceae Rabenhorst 1863. Publication: Komarek J, Golubic S. Guide to the Nomenclature and formal taxonomic treatment of oxyphototroph prokaryotes (Cyanoprokaryotes). Unknown Publisher, Unknown City, 1990.
  • 🧕 Winslow et al. (1920) assigned this genus to the tribe "Micrococceae". Publication: Winslow CE, Broadhurst J, Buchanan RE, Krumwiede C, Rogers LA, Smith GH. The Families and Genera of the Bacteria: Final Report of the Committee of the Society of American Bacteriologists on Characterization and Classification of Bacterial Types. J Bacteriol 1920; 5:191-229.
  • 🧒 Val-Calvo et al. (2025) assigned the subgenus Anisorhodococcus Val-Calvo et al. 2025 to this genus. Publication: Val-Calvo J, Scortti M, Goker M, Vazquez-Boland JA. Leveraging the subgenus category to address monophyletic genus over-splitting: illustration with recently proposed Mycobacteriales genera. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2025; 75:6917. 🇬🇧
  • 🧒 Val-Calvo et al. (2025) assigned the subgenus Pararhodococcus Val-Calvo et al. 2025 to this genus. Publication: Val-Calvo J, Scortti M, Goker M, Vazquez-Boland JA. Leveraging the subgenus category to address monophyletic genus over-splitting: illustration with recently proposed Mycobacteriales genera. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2025; 75:6917. 🇬🇧
  • 🧒 Val-Calvo et al. (2025) assigned the subgenus Prescottella (Sangal et al. 2022) Val-Calvo et al. 2025 to this genus. Publication: Val-Calvo J, Scortti M, Goker M, Vazquez-Boland JA. Leveraging the subgenus category to address monophyletic genus over-splitting: illustration with recently proposed Mycobacteriales genera. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2025; 75:6917. 🇬🇧
  • 🚋 The type species of this genus has alternatively been placed in the genus Staphylococcus Rosenbach 1884 (Approved Lists 1980). Publication: Zopf W. Über Ausscheidung von Fettfarbstoffen (Lipochromen) seitens gewisser Spaltpilze. Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 1891; 9:22-28.
  • 🙄 This taxon name is occasionally misprinted (or affected by an OCR error) in some sources as: "Ilhodococcus"; "Irhodococcus"; "Ithodococcus"; "Rbodococcus"; "Rhadococcus"; "Rhcdococcus"; "Rhdococcus"; "Rhedococcus"; "Rhocdococcus"; "Rhoclococcus"; "Rhodacaccus"; "Rhodccoccus"; "Rhodecoccus"; "Rhodocaccus"; "Rhodocccus"; "Rhodoccoccus"; "Rhodoccocus"; "Rhodoccous"; "Rhodoccus"; "Rhodocnccus"; "Rhodococccus"; "Rhodococciis"; "Rhodococcirs"; "Rhodococclus"; "Rhodococcm"; "Rhodococcous"; "Rhodococctm"; "Rhodococcua"; "Rhodococeus"; "Rhodococous"; "Rhodococus"; "Rhodococuus"; "Rhodocoecus"; "Rhodocoocus"; "Rhodocuccus"; "Rhododcoccus"; "Rhododoccus"; "Rhododococcus"; "Rhodoeoecus"; "Rhodoooccus"; "Rltodococcus"; "Rlwdococcus"; "Rlzodococcus"; "Rodococcus"; "Thodococcus".
  • 😡 This taxon name is a homonym of Rhodococcus Hansgirg 1884.
  • 🧔 This taxon was discussed in a meeting of a Taxonomic Subcommittee of the ICSP. Publication: Rocourt J, McLauchlin J. International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Listeria, Brochothrix, and Erysipelothrix: Minutes of the Closed Meeting, 20 August 1996, Jerusalem, Israel. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 1997; 47:1273-1273.
  • 🧔 This taxon was discussed in a meeting of a Taxonomic Subcommittee of the ICSP. Publication: Rocourt J, J M. Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Listeria, Brochothrix, and Erysipelothrix: Minutes of the Closed Meeting, 20 August 1996, Jerusalem, Israel. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 1997; 47:1273-1273.
  • 💁 Taxonomists who have recently focused on this group are the corresponding authors of Briglia et al. (1996), Wang et al. (2010), Vazquez-Boland et al. (2025), Kim et al. (2022), Kusuma et al. (2024). Editors in search of reviewers are advised to consider additional criteria such as whether a taxon is covered by one of the ICSP subcommittees.
  • 🎰 The BRCs most frequently used for deposits in this group are: DSM: 64; JCM: 57; NBRC: 38; ATCC: 28; CIP: 23; LMG: 19; NRRL: 18; IFO: 16; CCTCC: 14; KCTC: 14.
  • 😷 The risk group for Canada has been imported on 2024-02-27. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "Animal classification RG: 2 - Security sensitive biological agent: No - Terrestrial animal pathogen under Canadian Food Inspection Agency authority: No - Containment level: Containment Level 2". — If in doubt, use the risk group given in the regulations for your country and, if these are not available, use the risk group given in the catalogue of the culture collection from which you have obtained or intend to obtain the strain.
  • 🧍 According to Shipunov (2011), this name is a hemihomonym. Publication: Shipunov A. The problem of hemihomonyms and the on-line hemihomonyms database (HHDB). Bionomina 2011; 4:65-72.
  • 🧍 According to Tindall, a potential later homonym of the algal genus Rhodococcus Hansgirg 1884. Publication: Tindall BJ. A note on the genus name Rhodococcus Zopf 1891 and its homonyms. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2014; 64:1062-1064. 🇩🇪
  • 🧍 Conserved name (Judicial Opinion 130). This name was subject to a Request for an Opinion. Publication: Goodfellow M, Oren A, Sangal V, Sutcliffe IC. Is the bacterial genus name Rhodococcus Zopf 1891 illegitimate? Request for an Opinion. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2024; 74:6251. 🇬🇧
  • 🧍 On the Approved Lists 1980, the effective publication for the genus Rhodococcus is a paper by Goodfellow and Alderson 1977. In this paper, the nomenclatural name Rhodococcus is assigned to the neuter gender! However, in accordance with Rule 65(2) a generic name which is modern coupound from two Greek words take the gender of the last component of the compound word. In Greek, kokkos is in the masculine gender, and the genus name Rhodococcus should be assigned to the masculine gender. — Rhodococcus Zopf 1891 may violate Principle 2 and Rule 51b (4) because of the presence ofthe algal genus Rhodococcus Hansgirg 1884. Publication: Goodfellow M, Alderson G. The actinomycete-genus Rhodococcus: a home for the "rhodochrous" complex. J Gen Microbiol 1977; 100:99-122.

Subdivision:

Number of child taxa with a validly published and correct name: 59
Number of child taxa with a validly published name, including synonyms: 82
Total number of child taxa: 92

• Child taxa:

  • Name	Nomenclatural status	Taxonomic status
    Rhodococcus aerolatus Hwang et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus aetherivorans Goodfellow et al. 2004	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus agglutinans Guo et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus aichiense Tsukamura 1983	inaccurate spelling	misspelling
    Rhodococcus aichiensis corrig. Tsukamura 1983	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus antarcticus Sun et al. 2023	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus antrifimi Ko et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    "Rhodococcus aromaticivorans" Muhammad et al. 2025	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus artemisiae Zhao et al. 2012	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus aurantiacus (ex Tsukamura and Mizuno 1971) Tsukamura and Yano 1985	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    "Rhodococcus australis" Hiddema et al. 1985	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus baikonurensis Li et al. 2004	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus biphenylivorans Su et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    "Rhodococcus boritolerans" Lin et al. 2012	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus bronchialis (Tsukamura 1971) Tsukamura 1974 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus canchipurensis Nimaichand et al. 2013	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus cavernicola Lee et al. 2020	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus cerastii Kämpfer et al. 2013	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus cercidiphylli Li et al. 2012	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus chlorophenolicus Apajalahti et al. 1986	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus chondri Girão et al. 2024	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus chubuensis Tsukamura 1983	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus coprophilus Rowbotham and Cross 1979 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus corallinus (Bergey et al. 1923) Goodfellow and Alderson 1977 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus corynebacterioides (Serrano et al. 1972) Yassin and Schaal 2005	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    "Rhodococcus daqingensis" Wang et al. 2019	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus defluvii Kämpfer et al. 2014	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus degradans Švec et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus electrodiphilus Ramaprasad et al. 2018	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus enclensis Dastager et al. 2014	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus equi (Magnusson 1923) Goodfellow and Alderson 1977 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus erythropolis (Gray and Thornton 1928) Goodfellow and Alderson 1979 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus fascians (Tilford 1936) Goodfellow 1984	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus gannanensis Ma et al. 2017	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus globerulus Goodfellow et al. 1985	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus gordoniae Jones et al. 2004	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus hoagii (Morse 1912) Kämpfer et al. 2014	validly published under the ICNP, rejected name	in need of a replacement
    Rhodococcus humicola Nguyen and Kim 2016	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus imtechensis Ghosh et al. 2006	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus indonesiensis Kusuma et al. 2024	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus jialingiae Wang et al. 2010	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus jostii Takeuchi et al. 2002	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus koreensis Yoon et al. 2000	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus kronopolitis Liu et al. 2025	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus kroppenstedtii Mayilraj et al. 2006	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus kunmingensis Wang et al. 2008	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus kyotonensis Li et al. 2007	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus lactis Singh et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    "Rhodococcus lentifragmentus" Tsukamura 1978	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus luteus (ex Söhngen 1913) Nesterenko et al. 1982	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus maanshanensis Zhang et al. 2002	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus marinonascens Helmke and Weyland 1984	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus maris (ex Harrison 1929) Nesterenko et al. 1982	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    "Rhodococcus mengyinensis" Wei et al. 2025	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus nanhaiensis Li et al. 2012	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus navarretei Carrasco et al. 2024	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus obuensis Tsukamura 1983	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus olei Chaudhary and Kim 2018	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus opacus Klatte et al. 1995	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus oryzae Li et al. 2020	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus oxybenzonivorans Baek et al. 2022	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus parequi Vázquez-Boland et al. 2025	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus pedocola Nguyen and Kim 2016	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus percolatus Briglia et al. 1996	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus phenolicus Rehfuss and Urban 2006	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus pseudokoreensis Kämpfer et al. 2023	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    "Rhodococcus psychrotolerans" Silva et al. 2018	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus pyridinivorans Yoon et al. 2000	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus qingshengii Xu et al. 2007	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus rhodnii Goodfellow and Alderson 1979 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus rhodochrous (Zopf 1891) Tsukamura 1974 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP, lectotype	correct name
    Rhodococcus roseus (ex Grotenfelt 1889) Tsukamura et al. 1991	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus ruber (Kruse 1896) Goodfellow and Alderson 1977 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus rubropertinctus (Hefferan 1904) Tsukamura 1974 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus sacchari Zang et al. 2025	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    "Rhodococcus shunpengi" Wei et al. 2025	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus soli Li et al. 2015	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus sovatensis Táncsics et al. 2017	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus spelaei Lee and Kim 2021	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus spongiicola Zhang et al. 2021	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus sputi (ex Tsukamura 1978) Tsukamura and Yano 1985	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    Rhodococcus subtropicus Lee et al. 2019	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus terrae (Tsukamura 1971) Tsukamura 1974 (Approved Lists 1980)	validly published under the ICNP	synonym
    "Rhodococcus tibetensis" Huang et al. 2022	not validly published	preferred name
    Rhodococcus triatomae Yassin 2005	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus trifolii Kämpfer et al. 2013	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus tukisamuensis Matsuyama et al. 2003	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus wratislaviensis (Goodfellow et al. 1995) Goodfellow et al. 2002	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus xishaensis Zhang et al. 2021	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus yananensis Jiang et al. 2022	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus yunnanensis Zhang et al. 2005	validly published under the ICNP	correct name
    Rhodococcus zopfii Stoecker et al. 1994	validly published under the ICNP	correct name

Parent taxon: Nocardiaceae Castellani and Chalmers 1919 (Approved Lists 1980)

Assigned by: Stackebrandt E, Rainey FA, Ward-Rainey NL. Proposal for a new hierarchic classification system, Actinobacteria classis nov. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1997; 47:479-491. 🇩🇪

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Record number: 516476