The Family Cryomorphaceae

Cryomorphaceae represents a family within the phylum Bacteroidetes and comprises primarily marine genera that include Cryomorpha, Brumimicrobium, Crocinitomix, Owenweeksia, Fluviicola, Lishizhenia, Wandonia, Salinirepens, and Phaeocystidibacter. This family lies between the family Flavobacteriaceae and the assemblage of taxa grouped within the order Bacteroidales. With the recent description of the family Schleiferiaceae, the family Cryomorphaceae is now clearly non-monophyletic. Cultured members of the Cryomorphaceae as it stands at the moment occur in a range of aquatic habitats including river epilithon, seawater, marine sediments, coastal sands, and endorheic water bodies. Molecular studies, however, suggest the family is present within a wide range of non-extreme ecosystems both marine and terrestrial, across tropical to polar regions. The accumulated data suggests members of the family have roles in aquatic ecosystem secondary production and are generally found in locations relatively rich in organic carbon. This contribution updates a previous review of this family presented in the 2nd edition of Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology (Bowman JP, Family III. Cryomorphaceae. In: Krieg NR, Staley JT, Brown DR, Hedlund BP, Paster BL, Ward NL, Ludwig W, Whitman WB (eds) Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology, vol 4, 2nd edn. Springer, New York, pp 322–326, 2011).