A new dawn for the naming of fungi: impacts of decisions made in Melbourne in July 2011 on the future publication and regulation of fungal names

Abstract

A personal synopsis of the decisions made at the Nomenclature Section meeting of the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in July 2011 is provided, with an emphasis on those which will affect the working practices of, or will otherwise be of interest to, mycologists. The topics covered include the re-naming of the Code, the acceptance of English as an alternative to Latin for validating diagnoses, conditions for permitting electronic publication of names, mandatory deposit of key nomenclatural information in a recognized repository for the valid publication of fungal names, the discontinuance of dual nomenclature for pleomorphic fungi, and clarification over the typification of sanctioned names, and acceptability of names originally published under the zoological code. Collectively, these changes are the most fundamental to have been enacted at single Congress since the 1950s, and herald the dawn of a new era in the practice of fungal nomenclature

Bretziella, a new genus to accommodate the oak wilt fungus, Ceratocystis fagacearum (Microascales, Ascomycota)

“…Note 1. Based on the one fungus one name principles adopted in the Melbourne Code (Hawksworth 2011, McNeill et al 2012, the older basionym of the oak wilt pathogen, Chalara quercina (Henry 1944), has nomenclatural priority over Endoconidiophora fagacearum, the name Bretz (1952) assigned to the sexual state of the fungus. However, since Hunt (1956) treated the fungus as Ceratocystis fagacearum, the latter name were given preference under the dual nomenclature system in all major taxonomic works on the genus to date (Griffin 1968, De Hoog 1974, Nag Raj and Kendrick 1975, Upadhyay 1981, Seifert et al 1993, Paulin-Mahady et al 2002, Harrington 2009, De Beer et al 2013b, Mayers et al 2015.…”

“…Oak wilt is caused by a fungus in the genus Ceratocystis, which is widely known as Ceratocystis fagacearum (Juzwik et al 2008, 2011, Harrington 2009). The genus was originally described to accommodate the sweet potato pathogen, C. fimbriata (Halsted 1890).…”

Multigene phylogenies of Ophiostomataceae associated with Monterey pine bark beetles in Spain reveal three new fungal species

“…De Beer et al (2013) revealed that this complex represented a phylogenetically distinct lineage in the Ophiostomatales, for which they reinstated the older genus name, Graphilbum. They redefined the genus, previously considered an anamorph genus, based on the one fungus one name principles adopted in the ICN (Hawksworth 2011), to accommodate species known from either their sexual or asexual states or both. At present Graphilbum contains six known species, Gra.…”

“…Thus one species could have two or sometimes three names, each representing a different state. However, in 2011 the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants (ICN) was emended and currently only allows one species name for each fungus, with the oldest genus name having priority (Hawksworth 2011, Hawksworth et al 2011. The application of the new rules inevitably led to emended concepts for several of the ophiostomatoid genera, as well as name changes in the Ophiostomatales Wingfield 2013, de Beer et al 2013).…”

The genus Asteromella (Fungi: Ascomycota) in Poland

“…First, most authors have followed the logical principle of "one fungus -one name", even prior to being formally introduced to the Melbourne Code in 2011 [56,57]. Secondly, at the basis of the application of this principle to Asteromella-like species lies the common conviction of the participation of all such fungi in the fertilization process [2,5,[58][59][60][61][62][63].…”