Reclassification of Peptostreptococcus magnus (Prevot 1933) Holdeman and Moore 1972 as Finegoldia magna comb. nov and Peptostreptococcus micros (Prevot 1933) Smith 1957 as Micromonas micros comb. nov.

Several lines of evidence, notably 16S rRNA sequence analysis, indicate tha t the genus Peptostreptococcus is phylogenetically incoherent. Two of the m ost well studied species, Peptostreptococcus magnus and Peptostreptococcus micros, differ significantly in both genetic, and phenotypic characteristic s from each other and from the type species of the genus, Peptostreptococcu s anaerobius. Therefore, we propose that Peptostreptococcus magnus be recla ssified in a new genus, Finegoldia, as Finegoldia magna; we propose that Pe ptostreptococcus micros be reclassified in new genus, Micromonas, as Microm onas micros. (C) 1999 Academic Press.