How to publish a new fungal species, or name, version 3.0

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.

The evolving species concepts used for yeasts: from phenotypes and genomes to speciation networks

“…In its simplest iteration, the description of a yeast species must entail the valid publication of a protologue that specifies a type specimen to which a binomial is permanently attached, as specified by the 'International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants' (ICNafp, Turland et al 2018). Ideally, a good species description should go well beyond the mere fulfilment of formal requirements of the ICNafp (Aime et al 2021). Linnaeus (1758) famously stated that the species is the work of nature, while much of everything else in systematics is a human construct.…”

“…The construction of a tree then follows with the dual purpose of (1) identifying the phylogenetic position of the novel species in the hierarchy of classification and (2) adding evidence that a new species has indeed been discovered. The first task must be regarded as preliminary, as a robust phylogeny simply cannot be obtained from insufficient data (in terms of both sequence data and taxon sampling), no matter what tree inference algorithm is used (Aime et al 2021). The second objective must consider what species concept is to be applied.…”

“…Perhaps one of the most important aspects of describing new taxa should be a sensitivity to the user community. Descriptions should be informative and founded on the highest quality biology and provide enough detail for unambiguous identification (Aime et al 2021). In an editorial published in the journal 'Yeast', Lachance (2020) listed a number of essential requirements, namely high-quality work, reference to the relevant literature including the latest edition of 'The Yeasts, a Taxonomic Study' (Kurtzman et al 2011a) or its electronic successor https:// theye asts.…”

Analogs of the carotane antibiotic fulvoferruginin from submerged cultures of a Thai Marasmius sp.

“…A macroscopic differentiation to Marasmius is difficult and a taxonomic classification based on ITS alone has proven to be insufficient for these genera [11]. In addition, the recent finding that multiple copies of the rDNA can be present in one and the same genome of certain fungi, leading to up to more than 10% deviations [12], makes us suspicious about the validity of the previous classification of the Chinese "Gymnopus" species.…”

“…Taking also other marker loci into consideration, as is required for publishing a new fungal species [12] The DNA extraction was performed using an EZ-10 Spin Column Genomic DNA Miniprep kit (Bio Basic Canada Inc., Markham, Ontario, Canada) following the manufacturer's protocol. A Precellys 24 homogenizer (Bertin Technologies, France) at 6000 rpm for 2 × 40 s was used for cell disruption.…”