Acidobacteria

The Acidobacteria are an order of bacteria which are found in abundance in soils. In some soils they can be as much as 30% to 50% of the identifiable bacterial species. As the name suggests, they're acidophilic (acid loving). This order is a relatively new player in the Bacteria kingdom. We often find 16S rDNA Acidobacteria sequences when we do our sampling. I'm attaching a phylogenetic tree of one such study. Each branch of the tree (separated by differently colored boxes) indicates a different Acidobacteriaceae genus.



These microbes have proven difficult to culture, however there are cases of it occurring. It is believed that these microbes may be able to play a role in bioremediation.