Category: REPORTS

Robert Lücking, M. Catherine Aime, Barbara Robbertse, Andrew N. Miller, Takayuki Aoki, Hiran A. Ariyawansa, Gianluigi Cardinali, Pedro W. Crous, Irina S. Druzhinina, David M. Geiser, David L. Hawksworth, Kevin D. Hyde, Laszlo Irinyi, Rajesh Jeewon, Peter R. Johnston, Paul M. Kirk, Elaine Malosso, Tom W. May, Wieland Meyer, Henrik R. Nilsson, Maarja Öpik, Vincent Robert, Marc Stadler, Marco Thines, Duong Vu, Andrey M. Yurkov, Ning Zhang & Conrad L. Schoch Fungal taxonomy and sequence-based nomenclature Nat Microbiol 6, 540–548 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00888-x

Abstract

The identification and proper naming of microfungi, in particular plant, animal and human pathogens, remains challenging. Molecular identification is becoming the default approach for many fungal groups, and environmental metabarcoding is contributing an increasing amount of sequence data documenting fungal diversity on a global scale. This includes lineages represented only by sequence data. At present, these taxa cannot be formally described under the current nomenclature rules. By considering approaches used in bacterial taxonomy, we propose solutions for the nomenclature of taxa known only from sequences to facilitate consistent reporting and communication in the literature and public sequence repositories.

M. Catherine Aime, Andrew N. Miller, Takayuki Aoki, Konstanze Bensch, Lei Cai, Pedro W. Crous, David L. Hawksworth, Kevin D. Hyde, Paul M. Kirk, Robert Lücking, Tom W. May, Elaine Malosso, Scott A. Redhead, Amy Y. Rossman, Marc Stadler, Marco Thines, Andrey M. Yurkov, Ning Zhang & Conrad L. Schoch How to publish a new fungal species, or name, version 3.0 IMA Fungus 12, 11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-021-00063-1

Abstract

It is now a decade since The International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi (ICTF) produced an overview of requirements and best practices for describing a new fungal species. In the meantime the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICNafp) has changed from its former name (the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature) and introduced new formal requirements for valid publication of species scientific names, including the separation of provisions specific to Fungi and organisms treated as fungi in a new Chapter F. Equally transformative have been changes in the data collection, data dissemination, and analytical tools available to mycologists. This paper provides an updated and expanded discussion of current publication requirements along with best practices for the description of new fungal species and publication of new names and for improving accessibility of their associated metadata that have developed over the last 10 years. Additionally, we provide: (1) model papers for different fungal groups and circumstances; (2) a checklist to simplify meeting (i) the requirements of the ICNafp to ensure the effective, valid and legitimate publication of names of new taxa, and (ii) minimally accepted standards for description; and, (3) templates for preparing standardized species descriptions.

Marco Thines, Takayuki Aoki, Pedro W. Crous, Kevin D. Hyde, Robert Lücking, Elaine Malosso, Tom W. May, Andrew N. Miller, Scott A. Redhead, Andrey M. Yurkov & David L. Hawksworth Setting scientific names at all taxonomic ranks in italics facilitates their quick recognition in scientific papers IMA Fungus 11, 25 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-020-00048-6

Abstract

It is common practice in scientific journals to print genus and species names in italics. This is not only historical as species names were traditionally derived from Greek or Latin. Importantly, it also facilitates the rapid recognition of genus and species names when skimming through manuscripts. However, names above the genus level are not always italicized, except in some journals which have adopted this practice for all scientific names. Since scientific names treated under the various Codes of nomenclature are without exception treated as Latin, there is no reason why names above genus level should be handled differently, particularly as higher taxon names are becoming increasingly relevant in systematic and evolutionary studies and their italicization would aid the unambiguous recognition of formal scientific names distinguishing them from colloquial names. Several leading mycological and botanical journals have already adopted italics for names of all taxa regardless of rank over recent decades, as is the practice in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, and we hereby recommend that this practice be taken up broadly in scientific journals and textbooks.