Category: MEETINGS

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.

ICTF WG1 General purpose classification
Convener:Marco

Currently the NCBI taxonomy and other classifications available are being compared and evaluated in the light of recent phylogenetic and phylogenomic results. Once this is done, a first suggestion for an order-level classification of the fungi and fungus-like eukaryotes will be discussed by the group, starting from September. A manuscript draft should be ready for submission by the end of the year.

ICTF WG2 Lists of protected family and generic names
Convener: Nalin

There are still different opinions regarding scope
Compiled table of protected names from the code were circulated among the members
Compared the names against the proposed names of ‘protected’ in the publications in last decade
WG2 members concluded that it is not useful to prepare the list again and publish it as it is already in the appendix of the code.

Preparing accepted genera list and compiling Typification data
• Still under discussion
Validating invalid and illegitimate names
• Details to be provided
Planned outcomes and their tentative deadline
• Plan to submit the first paper on validated names this year
• Further discussion on preparing the list of accepted genera in specific groups such as fungal orders or families

ICTF WG3 Typification of older names
Convener: Konstanze

Draft and the intention of the paper discussed at group meeting in February
David, Danny and Konstanze met after the Westerdijk spring symposium in April and compiled a more structured draft after input from Amy and others
Work continues on examples and an introduction for the paper

ICTF WG4 Naming environmental sequences
Conveners: Marco & Robert

Paper on sequences as types published by Special-purpose Committee established by the Shenzhen IBC across all organisms doi: 10.1002/tax.12931
Work continue by SPC focused on Fungi, chaired by David Hiibbett and Carlos Zamora – opportunities to interact
Session for IMC 12 in The Netherlands, 2024
The possibility of using DOIs for designating taxa and all different kinds of information such as typification was discussed. It was concluded that DOIs might be a useful addition, but the matter needs further discussion.

ICTF WG5 Revising rules regarding living cultures as types
Convener: Andrey – Presenter Cobus

Potential manuscript is still “in progress”
Proposal of a concept at the last Westerdijk Spring Symposium
Presentation made at International Conference on Culture Collections

ICTF WG6 Data standards for genomes
Conveners: Conrad & Cai

Outline of a paper provided in February and updated version sent out on Monday
Paper must be close to submission by next meeting

ICTF WG7 ICTF Media
Convener: Irina

ICTF website avaialble– www.fungaltaxonomy.info
Work still required to close old site

ICTF WG8 Revising Statutes
Convener: Tom

Draft comments on statutes in googledocs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/174lUoZC76bv23tsflkz5JKjwC1Csn5vuuW5GleATthQ/edit?usp=sharing
Vote planned on changes at next ICTF meeting or IMC12.
Group meeting to prepare final draft planned for September 6

Status of subcommissions

Updates to be provided annually
International Subcommission on Fusarium Taxonomy
After initial discussions with ICTF emails asking for updates were not followed up and this subcommission at ICTF should be concluded.

Kew updates on Index Fungorum, potential prize for young mycologists

Irina points out that the Index Fungorum needs more support for the years to come, currently it is mainly dependent on Paul Kirk to keep it up and running.

Promoting the citations of ABS and other permit numbers in mycological papers

This can be used to link data materials to permits, and look in detail at use.
While it was recognized that the topic is important, currently no WG will be constituted for this.
• IMC 2024 and items on other meetings
• Next meeting dates and other business