Taxonomic revision of the genus Methanobrevibacter, description of Methanomonile shimae gen. nov. sp. nov., and proposal of Methanobrevibacteraceae fam. nov
Recent phylogenomic analyses revealed that the genus
Methanobrevibacter
, which consists almost exclusively of representatives from the intestinal tract of animals, is severely underclassified. Based on the large relative evolutionary divergence between individual subclades, members of the genus
Methanobrevibacter
have been reclassified into eight novel genera as new combinations proposed under the rules of the Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes Described from Sequence Data. Here, we validly publish the new names for all taxa with type strains also under the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. This includes members of the genera
Methanacia
,
Methanobaculum
,
Methanobinarius
,
Methanocatella
and
Methanoflexus
. Moreover, we propose to place
Methanobrevibacter acididurans
, whose genome was only recently sequenced, in the new genus
Methanobotrus
and describe a new isolate from the gut of a cockroach as
Methanomonile shimae
gen. nov. sp. nov. Based on the large evolutionary distance from the remaining members of
Methanobacteriaceae
, we propose to reclassify all genera within the radiation of
Methanobrevibacter sensu lato
into their own family,
Methanobrevibacteraceae
fam. nov. In addition, we reclassify
Methanothermobacter tenebrarum
as
Methanothermobaculum tenebrarum
gen. nov. comb. nov. into a new family,
Methanothermobaculaceae
(
Methanobacteriales
) and provide emended descriptions for the phylum
Methanobacteriota
and the classes
Methanobacteria
and
Methanococci
.