Development of the SeqCode: A Proposed Nomenclatural Code for Uncultivated Prokaryotes With DNA Sequences As Type

Authors

William B. Whitman, University of Georgia
Maria Chuvochina, The University of Queensland, Australia
Brian P. Hedlund, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Philip Hugenholtz, The University of Queensland, Australia
Konstantinos T. Konstantinidis, Georgia Tech
Alison E. Murray, Desert Research Institute
Marike Palmer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Donovan H. Parks, The University of Queensland, Australia
Alexander J. Probst, University of Duisburg-Essen
Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Portland State University
Luis M. Rodriguez-R, University of Innsbruck, Innrain
Ramon Rossello-Mora, Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies
Iain Sutcliffe, Northumbria University,
Stephanus N. Venter, University of Pretoria

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-31-2022

Publication Title

Systematic and Applied Microbiology

First page number:

1

Last page number:

8

Abstract

Over the last fifteen years, genomics has become fully integrated into prokaryotic systematics. The genomes of most type strains have been sequenced, genome sequence similarity is widely used for delineation of species, and phylogenomic methods are commonly used for classification of higher taxonomic ranks. Additionally, environmental genomics has revealed a vast diversity of as-yetuncultivated taxa. In response to these developments, a new code of nomenclature, the Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes Described from Sequence Data (SeqCode), has been developed over the last two years to allow naming of Archaea and Bacteria using DNA sequences as the nomenclatural types. The SeqCode also allows naming of cultured organisms, including fastidious prokaryotes that cannot be deposited into culture collections. Several simplifications relative to the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) are implemented to make nomenclature more accessible, easier to apply and more readily communicated. By simplifying nomenclature with the goal of a unified classification, inclusive of both cultured and uncultured taxa, the SeqCode will facilitate the naming of taxa in every biome on Earth, encourage the isolation and characterization of as-yet-uncultivated taxa, and promote synergies between the ecological, environmental, physiological, biochemical, and molecular biological disciplines to more fully describe prokaryotes.

Keywords

Nomenclatural type; metagenome; SeqCode; nomenclatural code; Candidatus

Disciplines

Cell Anatomy | Cell Biology | Molecular Biology

File Format

PDF

File Size

343 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 License.

Repository Citation

Whitman, W. B., Chuvochina, M., Hedlund, B. P., Hugenholtz, P., Konstantinidis, K. T., Murray, A. E., Palmer, M., Parks, D. H., Probst, A. J., Reysenbach, A., Rodriguez-R, L. M., Rossello-Mora, R., Sutcliffe, I., Venter, S. N. (2022). Development of the SeqCode: A Proposed Nomenclatural Code for Uncultivated Prokaryotes With DNA Sequences As Type. Systematic and Applied Microbiology 1-8.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.syapm.2022.126305