Metabacteria

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
      I just happened to stumble upon this internet site by Dr. Hori of Japan.  He and Dr. Osawa proposed the name Metabacteria to replace the inaccurate name Archaebacteria.  This was many years before the really horrible name Archaea was proposed in 1990 (as part of the Three Domain classification, a warmed-over version of the discredited Three Urkingdom classification).  The only logical choice is between Archaebacteria and Metabacteria.  The name Archaea should NOT be used (well, except for the spider genus Archaea).  I still prefer the name Metabacteria, rather than Archaebacteria.  Then maybe it would dissuade those who still use metabacteria as an outgroup in eubacterial phylogenetic analyses (which is why thermophilic bacteria are artificially pulled to the base of eubacterial trees).  Anyway, I'm glad to see Hori and Osawa haven't given up on getting their name Metabacteria recognized and used, as well as due credit for their early recognition that metabacteria ("archaebacteria") are the bacteria closest to the origins of the eukaryotic host cell:

http://www.bio.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~hori/archaea.html