Microbial taxonomy is the foundation of microbiology and rapid advancements in DNA sequencing technologies are providing new approaches to address prevailing questions in this field. The family Colwelliaceae, which currently comprises four genera, is a diverse and globally abundant group of Gamaproteobacteria. Based on 14 publically available genomes of bacteria strains labeled as members of the family Colwelliaceae, phylogenomic analyses were conducted to revisiting the taxonomic status of this family both in the genus and species level. Using genome-based phylogeny as a primary guideline and genome-based similarity indexes including average amino acid identity, percentage of conserved proteins, average nucleotide identity, and the digital DNA-DNA hybridization as supplements, the following taxonomic proposals were proposed: Colwellia polaris, Colwellia beringensis, Colwellia sediminilitoris, Colwellia aestuarii, Colwellia chukchiensis and Colwellia mytili should be reclassified into the novel genus Cognaticolwellia; Colwellia agarivorans should be reclassified into the novel genus Pseudocolwellia. Our results constitute a solid framework for current and future taxonomic decisions within this family, which will be helpful for avoiding confusion with ecological and evolutionary interpretations in subsequent studies.

中文翻译：

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全基因组分析要求Collwellia属的分类学重排。

微生物分类学是微生物学的基础，DNA测序技术的快速发展为解决该领域的主要问题提供了新的方法。Colwelliaceae科目前由四个属组成，是一种由Gamaproteobacteria组成的多样化且全球性丰富的群体。基于14个公开标记为Collwelliaceae科成员的细菌菌株的基因组，进行了系统生物学分析，以重新研究该科在属和物种水平上的分类学地位。以基于基因组的系统发育学为主要准则，并基于基因组的相似性指标（包括平均氨基酸同一性，保守蛋白的百分比，平均核苷酸同一性和数字DNA-DNA杂交作为补充），提出了以下分类学建议：北极香菇（Collwellia polaris），应当将Beringensis香气菌，sedilminilitoris香气菌，aestuarii香气菌，chukchiensis香气菌和mytili香气菌重新分类为新的Cognaticolwellia属。Colwellia agarivorans应该重新分类为新的Pseudocolwellia属。我们的结果为该家族当前和将来的分类学决策提供了坚实的框架，这将有助于避免在后续研究中与生态学和进化学解释混淆。