Roadmap for Naming Uncultivated Archaea and Bacteria

Authors

• Alison E. Murray, Desert Research InstituteFollow
• John Freudenstein, Ohio State University
• Simonetta Gribaldo, Institut Pasteur
• Roland Hatzenpichler, Montana State University
• Philip Hugenholtz, University of Queensland
• Peter Kämpfer, Justus-Liebig-Universität
• Konstantinos T. Konstantinidis, Georgia Tech
• Christopher E. Lane, University of Rhode Island
• R. Thane Papke, University of Connecticut
• Donovan H. Parks, Montana State University
• Ramon Rossello-Mora, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies
• Matthew B. Stott, University of Canterbury
• Cameron Thrash, Northumbria University
• Stephanus N. Venter, University of Southern California
• William B. Whitman, University of Pretoria
• Silvia G. Acinas, Institut de Ciènces del Mar
• Rudolf I. Amann, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
• Karthik Anantharaman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jean Armengaud, CEA Pharmacology and Immunoanalysis Unit (SPI)
• Brett J. Baker, University of Texas at Austin
• Roman A. Barco, University of Southern California
• Helge B. Bode, Goethe University Frankfurt
• Eric S. Boyd, Montana State University
• Carrie L. Brady, University of the West of England
• Paul Carini, University of Arizona
• Patrick S. G. Chain, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Daniel R. Colman, Montana State University
• Kristen M. DeAngelis, University of Massachusetts
• Maria Asuncion de los Rios, National Museum of Natural Sciences
• Paulina Estrada-de los Santos, Instituto Politécnico Nacional
• Christopher A. Dunlop, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-8-2020

Publication Title

Nature Microbiology

First page number:

1

Last page number:

8

Abstract

The assembly of single-amplified genomes (SAGs) and metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) has led to a surge in genome-based discoveries of members affiliated with Archaea and Bacteria, bringing with it a need to develop guidelines for nomenclature of uncultivated microorganisms. The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) only recognizes cultures as ‘type material’, thereby preventing the naming of uncultivated organisms. In this Consensus Statement, we propose two potential paths to solve this nomenclatural conundrum. One option is the adoption of previously proposed modifications to the ICNP to recognize DNA sequences as acceptable type material; the other option creates a nomenclatural code for uncultivated Archaea and Bacteria that could eventually be merged with the ICNP in the future. Regardless of the path taken, we believe that action is needed now within the scientific community to develop consistent rules for nomenclature of uncultivated taxa in order to provide clarity and stability, and to effectively communicate microbial diversity.

Disciplines

Bacteriology | Life Sciences | Microbiology

File Format

pdf

File Size

1145 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Repository Citation

Murray, A. E., Freudenstein, J., Gribaldo, S., Hatzenpichler, R., Hugenholtz, P., Kämpfer, P., Konstantinidis, K. T., Lane, C. E., Papke, R. T., Parks, D. H., Rossello-Mora, R., Stott, M. B., Thrash, C., Venter, S. N., Whitman, W. B., Acinas, S. G., Amann, R. I., Anantharaman, K., Armengaud, J., Baker, B. J., Barco, R. A., Bode, H. B., Boyd, E. S., Brady, C. L., Carini, P., Chain, P. S., Colman, D. R., DeAngelis, K. M., de los Rios, M. A., Estrada-de los Santos, P., Dunlop, C. A. (2020). Roadmap for Naming Uncultivated Archaea and Bacteria. Nature Microbiology 1-8.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0733-x