Q: "How do you know what to name different bacteria?" ~ Delfin, 9, Toronto, ON.

Here is the answer from Dr. John Brumell, PhD, senior scientist in the Cell Biology program at the SickKids Research Institute.

A: “Bacteria are usually given two names: the genus and the species. Many of these names are in Latin and describe the bacteria in this language. For example, Staphylococcus aureus means "the golden cluster seed" since these bacteria are round like grapes, and appear yellow. Some bacteria include the names of the people who discovered them. For example, Salmonella typhimurium is of the genus Salmonella and the species is typhimurium. In this case, "Salmonella" is named after Dr. Salmon, who discovered this group of bacteria. And "typhimurium" refers to the fact that the bacteria can cause a disease like Typhoid fever (typhi-) in mice (-murium). So the names of bacteria often say a lot about the bacteria, and help you remember details about them.”

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