Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2022
Publication Title
New Microbes and New Infections
First page number:
1
Last page number:
9
Abstract
Since January 1, 2001, the only acceptable nomenclatural type for species under the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) has been pure cultures. Here, we argue that this requirement is discordant with the more inclusive nature of nomenclatural types accepted under other codes of nomenclature and posit that the unique rigidity of the ICNP has failed to serve the broad research community and has stifled progress. This case is based on the axiom that many archaea and bacteria are interdependent in nature and therefore difficult, if not impossible, to grow, preserve, and distribute as pure cultures. As such, a large proportion of Earth’s biodiversity cannot be named under the current system, which limits our ability to communicate about microbial diversity within and beyond the microbiology research community. Genome sequence data are now encouraged for valid publication of new taxa in microbial systematics journals, and metagenome-assembled genomes and single cell-amplified genomes are being generated rapidly from every biome on Earth. Thus, genome sequences are available for both cultivated and uncultivated microorganisms and can readily serve as a new category of nomenclatural type, allowing for a unified nomenclature for all archaea and bacteria, whether or not they are available as pure cultures. Ideally this would be under a single code of nomenclature but, as we review here, the newly established SeqCode will operate in parallel with the ICNP as a first step toward this goal.
Keywords
Systematics; taxonomy; genomics; ICNP; metagenomics; single-cell genomics; SeqCode; nomenclatural type; type
Disciplines
Life Sciences
File Format
File Size
792 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
Palmer, M.,
Sutcliffe, I.,
Venter, S. N.,
Hedlund, B. P.
(2022).
It Is Time for a New Type of Type To Facilitate Naming the Microbial World.
New Microbes and New Infections
1-9.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nmni.2022.100991