There has been recent success in propagation by using low concentrations of nutrients in combination with high amounts of CO2,[10] yet, progress is still quite slow.

This area of study is a very current topic, and scientific understanding is expected to grow and change as new information comes to light.

[19] As well as their natural soil habitat, unclassified subdivision 2 Acidobacteriota have also been identified as a contaminant of DNA extraction kit reagents, which may lead to their erroneous appearance in microbiota or metagenomic datasets.

[25] It has been found that some strains of Acidobacteriota originating from soils have the genomic potential to respire oxygen at atmospheric and sub-atmospheric concentrations.

[24] Members of the Acidobacteriota phylum have been considered oligotrophic bacteria due to high abundances in low organic carbon environments.

[30][31][10] Despite the presence of genetic information generally known to encode for carbohydrate processing machinery in various genera of Acidobacteria, several experimental studies have demonstrated the inability to break down various polysaccharides.

Scientists note that it is much too early in their understanding of the field to draw conclusions about carbon processing in Acidobacteria, but believe that xylan degradation (a polysaccharide primarily found in the secondary cell wall of plants) currently appears to be the most universal carbon breakdown ability.

[10] Researchers believe that an additional factor in the lack of understanding of carbon degradation by acidobacteria may stem from the present limited ability to provide adequate cultivation conditions.

Therefore, the inconsistencies between genome sequence based predictions and observed carbon processes may be explained by present study methods.

There has been no clear evidence that Acidobacteriota are involved in nitrogen-cycle processes such as nitrification, denitrification, or nitrogen fixation.

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature[2] and National Center for Biotechnology Information.