Species Porphyromonas gingivalis

Name: Porphyromonas gingivalis (Coykendall et al. 1980) Shah and Collins 1988

Category, proposed as: species, comb. nov.

Basonym: Bacteroides gingivalis Coykendall et al. 1980

Etymology: gin.gi.va’lis. L. fem. n. gingiva, gum; L. masc./fem. adj. suff. -alis, suffix denoting pertaining to; N.L. fem. adj. gingivalis, pertaining to the gums, gingival

Pronunciation (Latin), gender: por-p^hy-RO-mo-nas gin-gi-WA-lis, feminine

Type strain: 2561; ATCC 33277; CCUG 25893; CCUG 25928; CIP 103683; DSM 20709; JCM 12257; NCTC 11834; Slots' strain 2561

Conduct genome-based taxonomy at

16S rRNA gene: AB547660 Analyse FASTA

Valid publication: Shah HN, Collins MD. Proposal for reclassification of Bacteroides asaccharolyticus, Bacteroides gingivalis, and Bacteroides endodontalis in a new genus, Porphyromonas. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1988; 38:128-131. 🇬🇧

Nomenclatural status: validly published under the ICNP

Taxonomic status: correct name (and explicitly recommended for medical use)

Risk group: 2

• Synonyms:

  • Name	Kind
    Bacteroides gingivalis Coykendall et al. 1980	homotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP

• Emendations:
  • Hahnke et al. 2016 Hahnke RL, Meier-Kolthoff JP, Garcia-Lopez M, Mukherjee S, Huntemann M, Ivanova NN, Woyke T, Kyrpides NC, Klenk HP, Goker M. Genome-Based Taxonomic Classification of Bacteroidetes. Front Microbiol 2016; 7:2003. 🇩🇪 Oren A, Garrity GM. List of changes in taxonomic opinion no. 26. Notification of changes in taxonomic opinion previously published outside the IJSEM. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2017; 67:2081-2086.

• Notes:
  • 😷 The risk group for Belgium has been imported on 2024-02-05. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "human and animal pathogen - biological class of risk animal: 2". — The risk group for Canada has been imported on 2024-02-27. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "Animal classification RG: 1 - Security sensitive biological agent: No - Terrestrial animal pathogen under Canadian Food Inspection Agency authority: No - Containment level: Containment Level 2". — The risk group for Swiss Confederation has been imported on 2024-02-01. The full classification is: risk group = 2. — The risk group for Germany has been imported on 2026-08-13. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "ht". — The risk group for Taiwan has been imported on 2024-11-03. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "P650 = v". — 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.
  • 🎓 Name mentioned 9999 times (maxed out) in PubMed until 2026-06-11.
  • 🙆 This name is on the List of Recommended Names for bacteria of medical importance (LoRN) as the name to be applied to this species. The name is on LoRN because of the recorded risk group of the species itself.
  • 🧍 According to Bartlett et al. (2022), this species is an established human pathogen. Publication: Bartlett A, Padfield D, Lear L, Bendall R, Vos M. A comprehensive list of bacterial pathogens infecting humans. Microbiology (Reading) 2022; 168:0. 🇬🇧
  • 🧍 The phylogenetic position of this species was determined in a genome-scale analysis by García-López et al. (2019). Publication: Garcia-Lopez M, Meier-Kolthoff JP, Tindall BJ, Gronow S, Woyke T, Kyrpides NC, Hahnke RL, Goker M. Analysis of 1,000 Type-Strain Genomes Improves Taxonomic Classification of Bacteroidetes. Front Microbiol 2019; 10:2083. 🇩🇪

Parent taxon: Porphyromonas Shah and Collins 1988

Assigned by: Shah HN, Collins MD. Proposal for reclassification of Bacteroides asaccharolyticus, Bacteroides gingivalis, and Bacteroides endodontalis in a new genus, Porphyromonas. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1988; 38:128-131. 🇬🇧

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Record number: 779764