Rhodococcus erythropolis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Actinomycetota
Class:	Actinomycetia
Order:	Mycobacteriales
Family:	Nocardiaceae
Genus:	Rhodococcus
Species:	R. erythropolis
Binomial name
Rhodococcus erythropolis (Gray and Thornton 1928) Goodfellow and Alderson 1979 (Approved Lists 1980)
Type strain
ATCC 4277 CIP 104179 DSM 43066 HAMBI 1953 IEGM 7 IFO 15567 JCM 20419 JCM 3201 LMG 5359 N11 NBRC 15567 NCIB 9158 NCIMB 9158 NCTC 13021 NRRL B-16025 VKM Ac-858
Synonyms
"Mycobacterium erythropolis" Gray and Thornton 1928 Rhodococcus baikonurensis Li et al. 2004[1] Rhodococcus degradans Švec et al. 2015 Rhodococcus enclensis Dastager et al. 2014 Rhodococcus jialingiae Wang et al. 2010 Rhodococcus qingshengii Xu et al. 2007

Rhodococcus erythropolis is a bacterium species in the genus Rhodococcus. It is Gram-positive. R. erythropolis has been isolated from the air of the Russian Space Laboratory Mir along with a large number of other microorganisms that steadily accumulated during the lifespan of the station.^[1] Rhodococcus bacteria are known to degrade organic compounds contained in the rubber used aboard the space station with specialized enzymes.^[2] This can lead to degradation of critical components and necessitates replacement of the parts or preventive measures dealing with microbial contamination.