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Report in BS 07/23 on special goup symposium at  VAAM Annual Meeting 2023

Bacterial taxonomy and the associated description of new taxa (species, genera, families, etc.) is the basis on which new bacterial isolates can be identified. The nomenclature should reflect the bacterial systematics. The 16S rRNA gene sequence plays an essential role in bacterial systematics, as it allows phylogenetic classification of new species. Furthermore, a comprehensive phenotypic characterization (morphology, physiology, chemotaxonomy) of these new species is required to allow subsequent identification of new isolates. With the rapid increase in new species descriptions, the 16S rRNA gene sequence often reaches the limits of its resolution. For this reason, the sequences of housekeeping genes have been analyzed more and more frequently in recent years, which in many cases also provide the desired findings. To take these developments into account, the minisymposia at the VAAM/DGHM Annual Meeting in Dresden (2014) and the VAAM Annual Meeting in Marburg (2015) focused on analyzing genes and genomes. The focus of last year's conference was on genomes and their significance for bacterial taxonomy. This mini-symposium was very well received, which was also evident from the intensive discussion following the presentations.