Fungal taxonomy and sequence-based nomenclature.

Area of Science:

• Mycology
• Microbial Taxonomy
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Accurate identification and nomenclature of microfungi, especially pathogens, present significant challenges.
• Molecular identification and environmental metabarcoding are increasingly vital for documenting fungal diversity and revealing novel lineages.
• Current nomenclature rules hinder the formal description of taxa known solely from sequence data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the challenge of formally describing fungal taxa known only from sequence data.
• To propose solutions for fungal nomenclature, drawing parallels with bacterial taxonomy.
• To facilitate consistent reporting and communication of fungal diversity in scientific literature and public repositories.

Main Methods:

• Reviewing current challenges in fungal identification and nomenclature.
• Examining nomenclature practices in bacterial taxonomy.
• Proposing a framework for the nomenclature of sequence-defined fungal taxa.

Main Results:

• Identified limitations in current fungal nomenclature rules for sequence-only data.
• Adapted principles from bacterial taxonomy to propose solutions for microfungi.
• Outlined a pathway for formalizing the description of novel fungal lineages based on molecular data.

Conclusions:

• Establishing a nomenclature system for sequence-defined microfungi is crucial for scientific progress.
• Proposed solutions can enhance the integration of molecular data into fungal taxonomy.
• Consistent naming conventions will improve data accessibility and reduce ambiguity in fungal research.