Taxonomy is a systematic practice in which microorganisms are granted names to facilitate and standardize multi-disciplinary communication. We summarize novel bacterial taxa derived from human clinical material that were published in peer-reviewed literature and/or included by the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology during calendar year 2023, as well as taxonomic revisions that have been published/included by the same entity. While the majority of newly discovered facultative and anaerobic organisms were derived from microbiome surveillance, noteworthy novel taxa in the realm of pathogenicity potential include those related to Aerococcus spp., several Corynebacterium spp., Exercitatus varius gen. nov., sp. nov., and Mycoplasma phocimorsus sp. nov. With respect to nomenclature revision, the Bacillus and Clostridium genera continue to be visited annually. Creation of novel anaerobic Gram-negative bacillus genera Hallella, Hoylesella, Leyella, Segatella, and Xylanibacter impacted several Bacteroides spp. and Prevotella spp. Additional studies are necessary to ascertain the clinical significance of several of these microbes.
Keywords: bacteria; nomenclature; taxonomy.