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Proteobacteria

Proteobacteria is a major phylum of gram-negative bacteria whose establishment as a separate phylum within the domain Bacteria was proposed in 1987 by American microbiologist Carl Woese, based on the similarity of their genomic nucleotide sequences. Originally termed 'purple bacteria and their relatives' by Woese, this diverse phylum contains both normal human microbiota and pathogens, and is divided into five classes: Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and Epsilonproteobacteria.

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Updated 2026-06-01

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Biomedical Sciences

Microbiology @ OpenStax

OpenStax

Ch.4 Prokaryotic Diversity - Microbiology @ OpenStax