Candidate division

{{Short description|Lineage of organisms}}

{{for|a list of various candidate divisions|Bacterial phyla}}

A candidate division, candidate phylum or candidate division-level is a lineage of prokaryotic organisms for which until recently no cultured representatives have been found, but evidence of the existence of the clade has been obtained by 16S rRNA and metagenomic analysis of environmental samples.{{cite journal | vauthors = Hugenholtz P, Goebel BM, Pace NR | title = Impact of culture-independent studies on the emerging phylogenetic view of bacterial diversity | journal = Journal of Bacteriology | volume = 180 | issue = 18 | pages = 4765–74 | date = September 1998 | pmid = 9733676 | pmc = 107498 | doi = 10.1128/JB.180.18.4765-4774.1998 }} The term Candidatus in fact means a taxon for which there is insufficient information to call it a new species according to the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria.{{cite journal | vauthors = Frederiksen W | title=Judicial commission of the international committee on systematic bacteriology: Minutes of the meetings, 2 and 6 July 1994, Prague, Czech Republic

|journal=Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. |year=1995 |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=195–196 |url=http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/45/1/195.pdf |doi=10.1099/00207713-45-1-195 |doi-access=free }}