Bacterial phyla constitute the major lineages of the domain Bacteria. While the exact definition of a bacterial phylum is debated, a popular definition is that a bacterial phylum is a monophyletic lineage of bacteria whose 16S rRNA genes share a pairwise sequence identity of ~75% or less with those of the members of other bacterial phyla.[2]
It has been estimated that ~1,300 bacterial phyla exist.[2] As of May 2020, 41 bacterial phyla are formally accepted by the LPSN,[3] 89 bacterial phyla are recognized on the Silva database,[4] dozens more have been proposed,[5][6] and hundreds likely remain to be discovered.[2] As of 2017, approximately 72% of widely recognized bacterial phyla were candidate phyla[7] (i.e. have no cultured representatives).
^Hug, Laura A.; Baker, Brett J.; Anantharaman, Karthik; Brown, Christopher T.; Probst, Alexander J.; Castelle, Cindy J.; Butterfield, Cristina N.; Hernsdorf, Alex W.; Amano, Yuki; Ise, Kotaro; Suzuki, Yohey (11 April 2016). "A new view of the tree of life". Nature Microbiology. 1 (5): 16048. doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.48. ISSN2058-5276. PMID27572647.