katanobacteria katanobacteria katanobacteria is a bacterial phylum formerly known as wwe3. it has candidate status, meaning there are no cultured representatives, and is a member of the candidate phyla radiation (cpr). katanobacteria scientific classification domain: bacteria (unranked): cpr group phylum: "katanobacteria"hug et al. 2016b the katanobacteria phylum was first proposed in 2008 following the analysis of 16s rrna gene sequences from a mesophilic anaerobic digester. the name "katanobacteria" comes from the hebrew word "katan", which translates to "small". this is presumably a nod to the small cell size and/or genome size of members of this phylum (and most members of the cpr).