Name: Thermus aquaticus Brock and Freeze 1969 (Approved Lists 1980)

Category: Species

Proposed as: sp. nov.

Etymology: a.qua’ti.cus. L. masc. adj. aquaticus, living, growing, or found in or by the water, aquatic

Pronunciation (Latin), gender: … a-KWA-ti-kus, masculine

Type strain: ATCC 25104; DSM 625; JCM 10724; LMG 8924; NBRC 103206; NCAIM B.01703; NCIB 11243; NCIMB 11243; YT-1

See detailed strain information at

Conduct genome-based taxonomy at

16S rRNA gene: X58343 Analyse FASTA

Effective publication: Brock TD, Freeze H. Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., a nonsporulating extreme thermophile. J Bacteriol 1969; 98:289-297.

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

Taxonomic status: correct name

Risk group: 1

• Emendations:
  • García-López et al. 2019 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. 🇩🇪 Oren A, Garrity GM. List of changes in taxonomic opinion no. 32. Notification of changes in taxonomic opinion previously published outside the IJSEM. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2020; 70:4061-4090.

• Notes:
  • 🥇 Nomenclatural type of the genus Thermus Brock and Freeze 1969 (Approved Lists 1980). Publication: Brock TD, Freeze H. Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., a nonsporulating extreme thermophile. J Bacteriol 1969; 98:289-297.
  • 😷 The risk group for Canada has been imported on 2024-02-27. The full classification is: risk group = 1, note = "default: 1 Security sensitive biological agent: No - Terrestrial animal pathogen under Canadian Food Inspection Agency authority: No; thermophilus: 1 Security sensitive biological agent: No - Terrestrial animal pathogen under Canadian Food Inspection Agency authority: No". — The risk group for Swiss Confederation has been imported on 2024-02-01. The full classification is: risk group = 1. — The risk group for Germany has been imported on 2023-10-29. The full classification is: risk group = 1. — 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 658 times in PubMed until 2025-06-04.

Parent taxon: Thermus Brock and Freeze 1969 (Approved Lists 1980)

Assigned by: Brock TD, Freeze H. Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., a nonsporulating extreme thermophile. J Bacteriol 1969; 98:289-297.

Linking: To permanently link to this page, use https://lpsn.dsmz.de/species/thermus-aquaticusCopy to clipboardLink copied to clipboard

Record number: 782659