User:Ah51352/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Rhodococcus

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because a particular Rhodococcus species, Rhodococcus Rhodnii, is the primary symbiont of the kissing bugs I work with in my research lab. I wanted to see what the Wikipedia article looked like for this genus. The article, on a preliminary examination, seems to be very general information about the bacteria, which makes sense because it is a general article about many strains of bacteria with different characteristics that fall under the genus '' Rhodococcus. ''

Evaluate the article
The first two paragraphs of the lead section are well-written and concise. They provide a good overview of the key characteristics of the members of this genus. However, I think the lead section should discuss the pathogenicity of this genus a little further to better introduce the topic, especially as there is a dedicated Pathogenic Rhodococcus section. The paragraph in the lead section that discusses some bacteria's ability to degrade organic pollutants goes into a little too much detail for a brief overview section and is written in a bit of a confusing way. It should be more brief and use language that most people can understand. The details of the chemistry behind biodegradation can be discussed in its dedicated section. This is an area in which the article can improve.

The molecular biology section of the article is very underdeveloped and could use additional information. How does Rhodococcus sp. accomplish this? What are the characteristics that allow this bacteria to frequently appear as a contaminant? The article could use more images; some of the ones in the article are poor quality. A couple of them could also use captions.

Overall, the article needs updates and new information about significant newly discovered strains. The talk page of the article mentions one such newly discovered strain, but more could be added. For example, Rhodococcus rhodnii, the strain of bacteria that inhabits the Rhodnius prolixus kissing bug gut, has medical and biological significance and could be included in the article under a section about symbiotic strains of Rhodococcus. The article is a WikiEdu article, which students have worked on in the past. Students should continue to work on this article and improve it. The section listing the species of Rhodococcus is a good addition, although many of these species have underdeveloped or non-existing individual wiki pages. Overall, the writing of the article is well organized and neutral but lacking content. Some sections have confusing wording and should be rewritten. Sources are well-cited and organized. Editors can improve the article by compiling information from several sources about different strains, and summarizing similar characteristics of members of the genus in detail.