The ranks higher than the species in the prokaryotic taxonomy are primarily designated
based on phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences, but no definite standards
exist for the absolute relatedness (measured by 16S rRNA or other means) between the
ranks. Accordingly, it remains unknown how comparable the ranks are between different
organisms. To gain insights into this question, we studied the relationship between shared
gene content and genetic relatedness for 175 fully sequenced strains, using as a robust�…

Towards a genome-based taxonomy for prokaryotes … Search by classification … Towards
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