Cocci (singular - coccus, from the Latin coccinus (scarlet) and derived from the Greek kokkos (berry) ) are any microorganism (usually bacteria)[1] whose overall shape is spherical or nearly spherical.[2] Describing a bacterium as a coccus, or sphere, distinguishes it from bacillus, or rod. This is the first of many taxonomic traits for identifying and classifying a bacterium according to binomial nomenclature.
Aggregations of coccoid bacteria often occur and these forms have specific names as well[3]; listed here are the basic forms as well as representative bacterial genera:
^ Madigan M; Martinko J (editors). (2005). Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 11th ed., Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-144329-1.
^ Salton MRJ, Kim KS (1996). Structure. In: Baron's Medical Microbiology (Baron S et al, eds.), 4th ed., Univ of Texas Medical Branch. (via NCBI Bookshelf)ISBN 0-9631172-1-1.
^ Ryan KJ; Ray CG (editors) (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology, 4th ed., McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-8385-8529-9.
