Species Numbers in Bacteria.

Abstract

A modified biological species definition (BSD), i.e., that bacteria exchange genes within a species, but not usually between species, is shown to apply to bacteria. The formal definition of bacterial species, which is more conservative than the modified BSD, is framed in terms of DNA hybridization. From this I estimate there are a million species of bacteria in 30 grams of rich forest topsoil and propose that there will be at least a billion species worldwide.