International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi

Meeting Notes, open meeting, 15 August 2024, 8:00-9:00 am, Brussels 0.4 room

International Mycological Congress, Maastricht, Netherlands

M.C. Aime

President Schoch began by enumerating the various working groups and their progress:

Classification (not complete)

List of protected families and genera (not complete)

Typification of older names, led by Konstanze: paper in prep.

Naming of eDNA sequences

Living cultures as typesData standards for genomes, led by Conrad: not complete but will continue to lead

ICTF media, led by Irina: new webpage

ICTF statutes, led by Tom May: completed

      The floor was then opened for suggestions on new WGs/activities.

      • Tom May spoke about a role for the ICTF in generating names for protection.  Protection is stronger than conservation (protection covers names even if an older name is found later).  Suggestion to take lists of groups with good names and consider locking those in with protection.  These lists could also be used to lock in names that were improperly typified.  David Hawksworth noted that we should really be doing this for genera.
      • It was suggested that we work to have a recommendation added to the code that recommends that DNA sequences be part of a species description.
      • Alona Byketova suggestion the creation of a WG for boletes.
      • A suggestion was made that ICTF provide funds for WGs to meet in person once a year.  This would ensure much more activity and coordination amongst the groups, but since ICTF is not revenue-generating, how to do this is not clear.
      • A suggestion was made that a WG be created that supports IDs for applied sciences.  The idea is to translate current taxonomy to the non-taxonomist, and/or provide a clearinghouse for authentication.