Eubacterium minutum is an earlier synonym of Eubacterium tardum and has priority

1 Oral Microbiology Unit, Division of Oral Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Dental Institute, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK 2 Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, PO Box 915, Cardiff CF1 3TL, UK Author for correspondence: William G Wade Tel: +44 20 7955 2849. Fax: +44 20 7955 2847. e-mail: w.wade{at}umds.ac.uk ABSTRACT The recently proposed species Eubacterium minutum and Eubacterium tardun appeared to be similar from their published descriptions. The aim of this stud was to perform phenotypic and genetic analyses of strains of both species clarify their taxonomic position. The type strains of E. minutum and E. tardun exhibited identical biochemical and protein profiles and their 16S rRNA gene sequences displayed 99·9% similarity. The G+C content of the DNA of both strains was estimated at 45 mol%. It is concluded that E. minutum and E. tardum are synonyms; E. minutum has priority. An emended description of E. minutum is given. Key Words: Eubacterium • 16S rRNA • taxonomy The GenBank/EWB_DOBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene of E. minutum ATCC 70·79 T is AJ005636 .