dehalobacter dehalobacter dehalobacter is a genus in the phylum bacillota (bacteria). dehalobacter scientific classification domain: bacteria phylum: bacillota class: clostridia order: clostridiales family: gracilibacteraceae genus: dehalobacterholliger et al. 1998 type species dehalobacter restrictusholliger et al. 1998 species d. restrictus etymology the generic name dehalobacter derives from latin de, from; halogenum from swedish, coined by swedish chemist baron jöns jakob berzelius (1779–1848) from greek hals, halos "salt" + gen "to produce", so called because a salt is formed in reactions involving these elements; a rod bacter, nominally meaning "a rod", but in effect meaning a bacterium, a rod; giving dehalobacter, a halogen-removing, rod-shaped bacterium. species the genus contains a single species, namely d. restrictus ( holliger et al. 1998, type species of the genus. the specific name is from latin restrictus, limited, restricted, confined, referring to the limited substrate range used. recently, dehalobacter sp. unswdhb, which dechlorinate chloroform to dichloromethane, and its reductive dehalogenase were identified.