Eubacteria

Term formerly used to describe and differentiate the true bacteria from the archaebacteria. Today, the true bacteria form the domain Bacteria, and the archaebacteria (also an obsolete term) form the domain Archaea. These domains are the two major groups of the prokaryotes.

The bacteria and archaea are thought to have evolved separately from a common ancestor early in Earth's history; they are as different from each other as they are from the eukaryotes. Virtually all the familiar bacteria that cause diseases, such as E. coli, Staphylococcus species, and Salmonella species, or that are important in agriculture, biotechnology, and other industrial activity, such as Lactobacillus, Nitrosomonas, and Streptomyces, were once referred to as eubacteria and have since been placed in the domain Bacteria.