Inventory of new microbial taxa from Iran

Microorganisms constitute more than half of the Earth's biomass and in addition to quantity,they represent great diversity. In January 2013, the number of officially registered names forprokaryotic microorganisms at the genus and species levels were, respectively, approximately2100 and 12000. Current authorized methods for classification and identification of newmicrobial taxa are polyphasic approaches which make use of a codified set of characteristicsfor classification of microorganisms. Here, we present a brief overview of criteria by whichprokaryotes are classified and subsequently summarize some recent findings on the microbialflora of Iran. Among all microbial taxa identified to date, six taxa at the genus level and 24taxa at the species level were first discovered in and reported from Iran. This attests to theexistence of a rich microbial diversity in Iran. Among the species, four belong to the Archaeaand the others belong to the Bacteria domain. The bacterial taxa consist of six Gram- negativespecies within Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes phylems and 20 Gram-positive taxa thatare among the Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and related organisms. It is incumbent that furtherfocus be placed on the rich ecological diversity of Iran, and it is expected that this will resultin identification of new endemic microorganisms.