Name: Prevotella melaninogenica (Oliver and Wherry 1921) Shah and Collins 1990

Category: Species

Proposed as: comb. nov.

Basonym: "Bacterium melaninogenicum" Oliver and Wherry 1921

Etymology: me.la.ni.no.ge’ni.ca. N.L. neut. n. melaninum, melanin; Gr. masc. adj. genikos, producing; from Gr. masc. n. genetês, a begetter; N.L. fem. adj. melaninogenica, melanin producing (black pigment is due to protoheme and not to melanin, as originally thought.)

Pronunciation (Latin), gender: … me-la-ni-no-GE-ni-ka, feminine

Type strain: ATCC 25845; CCUG 4944; CCUG 4944 B; CIP 105346; DSM 7089; Finegold B282; JCM 6325; NCTC 12963; VPI 15087; VPI 4196

Conduct genome-based taxonomy at

16S rRNA gene: AB547693 Analyse FASTA

Valid publication: Shah HN, Collins DM. Prevotella, a new genus to include Bacteroides melaninogenicus and related species formerly classified in the genus Bacteroides. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1990; 40:205-208. 🇬🇧

Nomenclatural status: validly published under the ICNP

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

Risk group: 2

• Synonyms:

  • Name	Kind
    Bacteroides melaninogenicus (Oliver and Wherry 1921) Roy and Kelly 1939 (Approved Lists 1980)	homotypic synonym, validly published under the ICNP
    "Bacterium melaninogenicum" Oliver and Wherry 1921	homotypic synonym, not validly published, basonym of name in Approved Lists

• Emendations:
  • Wu et al. 1992 Wu CC, Johnson JL, Moore WE, Moore LV. Emended descriptions of Prevotella denticola, Prevotella loescheii, Prevotella veroralis, and Prevotella melaninogenica. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1992; 42:536-541. 🇺🇸
    Notes:
    • 🧍 This emendation was not found in the expected IJSEM notification list.
  • 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:
  • 🥇 Nomenclatural type of the genus Prevotella Shah and Collins 1990. Publication: Shah HN, Collins DM. Prevotella, a new genus to include Bacteroides melaninogenicus and related species formerly classified in the genus Bacteroides. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1990; 40:205-208. 🇬🇧
  • 😷 The risk group for Belgium has been imported on 2024-02-05. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "human pathogen". — 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". — 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 2023-10-29. 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 346 times in PubMed until 2025-06-04.
  • 🙆 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: Prevotella Shah and Collins 1990

Assigned by: Shah HN, Collins DM. Prevotella, a new genus to include Bacteroides melaninogenicus and related species formerly classified in the genus Bacteroides. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1990; 40:205-208. 🇬🇧

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Record number: 779793