Candidatus

Candidatus ^[1] is a term in the taxonomy (scientific classification) of bacteria.

It is a label put before the name of a bacterium which cannot be grown on an agar plate or in any other bacteriology culture. An example would be "Candidatus Phytoplasma allocasuarinae".^[2] Candidatus status may be used when a species or genus is well studied but cannot be cultured. Nowadays much information is got by 16S ribosomal RNA sequence analysis.

1. ↑ Latin for candidate of Roman office, named after the white gown worn by Roman senators
2. ↑ Notice the Candidatus is italicised but the name is not.