There are SO MANY different kinds of bacteria–so many, that this list could go on for pages and pages. I’m not going to do that to you (or myself)! Below are the groups of bacteria broken down into Gram positive bacteria, Gram negative bacteria, and those which are ungrouped. Within each group all of the phyla classifications, and within each phyla, I have listed just what I believe to be important HUMAN infections.
What’s Gram positive and Gram negative mean?
Gram positive bacterial phyla:
Actinobacteria
- Actinomyces israelii (Actinomycosis)
- Corynebacterium diphtheriae (diphtheria), VAX
- Nocardia brasiliensis and Nocardia asteroides (Nocardiosis)
- Streptomyces spp. (streptomycosis)
- G: Mycobacterium – M. tuberculosis (Turberculosis); VAX, and M. leprae (leprosy)
Firmicutes
- C: Clostridia, G: Clostridium. – C. tetani (tetanus); VAX, and C. botulinum (botulism)
- G: Mycoplasma – M. pneumoniae (atypical pneumonia), M. genitalium (pelvic Inflammatory diseases)
- G: Streptococcus – S. pneumoniae (pneumococcus); VAX, S. pyogenes (Group Strep. A)
- Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), VAX
- G: Staphylococcus – S. aureus (staph infections, impetigo, MRSA, food poisoning)
Tenericutes
- G: Mycoplasma – M. pneumoniae (atypical pneumonia), M. genitalium (pelvic Inflammatory diseases)
Gram negative bacterial phyla:
Aquificae
Chlamydiae
- G: Chlamydia – C. trachomatis (chlamydia)
Deinococcus-Thermus
Fibrobacteres-Chlorobi/Bacteroidetes (FCB group)
Fusobacteria
Gemmatimonadetes
Nitrospirae
Planctomycetes-Verrucomicrobia/Chlamydiae (PVC group)
Proteobacteria
- F: Enterobacteriaceae
- G: Escherichia – E. coli (food poisoning
- G: Salmonella – S. enterica, servar Typhi (typhoid fever); VAX, S. bongori or S. enterica (food poisoning)
- G: Yersina – Y. pestis (plagues)
- G: Klebsiella – K. pneumoniae
- G: Shigella
- G: Proteus
- G: Enterobacter
- G: Serratia
- G: Citrobacter
- G: Bordetella – B. pertussis (pertussis, whooping cough), VAX, B. henselae or B. quintana (cat scratch disease)
- G: Neisseria – N. meningitides (meningococcal disease); VAX, N. gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea)
- G: Vibrio – V. cholerae (cholera)
- G: Legionella – L. pneumophila (Legionnaire’s disease)
- G: Haemophilus – H. influenzae type B, VAX
Spirochaetes
- G: Borrelia – B. burgdorferi, B. afzelii, and B. garinii ( all causes of lyme disease); VAX
- G: Treponema – T. pallidum (syphilis)
Synergistetes
Ungrouped
Acidobacteria
Chloroflexi
Chrysiogenetes
Cyanobacteria
Deferribacteres
Dictyoglomi
Thermodesulfobacteria
Thermotogae
Shorthand:
VAX = there is a vaccine for the bacterial infection
C= Class
G = Genera