Considerations and consequences of allowing DNA sequence data as types of fungal taxa

Juan Carlos Zamora, Måns Svensson, Roland Kirschner, Ibai Olariaga, Svengunnar Ryman, Luis Alberto Parra, József Geml, Anna Rosling, Slavomír Adamčík, Teuvo Ahti, M. Catherine Aime, A. Martyn Ainsworth, László Albert, Edgardo Albertó, Alberto Altés García, Dmitry Ageev, Reinhard Agerer, Begoña Aguirre-Hudson, Joe Ammirati, Harry AnderssonClaudio Angelini, Vladimír Antonín, Takayuki Aoki, André Aptroot, Didier Argaud, Blanca Imelda Arguello Sosa, Arne Aronsen, Ulf Arup, Bita Asgari, Boris Assyov, Violeta Atienza, Ditte Bandini, João Luís Baptista-Ferreira, Hans Otto Baral, Tim Baroni, Robert Weingart Barreto, Henry Beker, Ann Bell, Jean Michel Bellanger, Francesco Bellù, Martin Bemmann, Mika Bendiksby, Egil Bendiksen, Katriina Bendiksen, Lajos Benedek, Anna Bérešová-Guttová, Franz Berger, Reinhard Berndt, Annarosa Bernicchia, Alona Yu Biketova, Enrico Bizio, Curtis Bjork, Teun Boekhout, David Boertmann, Tanja Böhning, Florent Boittin, Carlos G. Boluda, Menno W. Boomsluiter, Jan Borovička, Tor Erik Brandrud, Uwe Braun, Irwin Brodo, Tatiana Bulyonkova, Harold H. Burdsall, Bart Buyck, Ana Rosa Burgaz, Vicent Calatayud, Philippe Callac, Emanuele Campo, Massimo Candusso, Brigitte Capoen, Joaquim Carbó, Matteo Carbone, Rafael F. Castañeda-Ruiz, Michael A. Castellano, Jie Chen, Philippe Clerc, Giovanni Consiglio, Gilles Corriol, Régis Courtecuisse, Ana Crespo, Cathy Cripps, Pedro W. Crous, Gladstone Alves da Silva, Meiriele da Silva, Marjo Dam, Nico Dam, Frank Dämmrich, Kanad Das, Linda Davies, Eske De Crop, Andre De Kesel, Ruben De Lange, Bárbara De Madrignac Bonzi, Thomas Edison E. dela Cruz, Lynn Delgat, Vincent Demoulin, Dennis E. Desjardin, Paul Diederich, Bálint Dima, Maria Martha Dios, Pradeep Kumar Divakar, Clovis Douanla-Meli, Brian Douglas, Elisandro Ricardo Drechsler-Santos, Paul S. Dyer, Ursula Eberhardt, Damien Ertz, Fernando Esteve-Raventós, Javier Angel Etayo Salazar, Vera Evenson, Guillaume Eyssartier, Edit Farkas, Alain Favre, Anna G. Fedosova, Mario Filippa, Péter Finy, Adam Flakus, Simón Fos, Jacques Fournier, André Fraiture, Paolo Franchi, Ana Esperanza Franco Molano, Gernot Friebes, Andreas Frisch, Alan Fryday, Giuliana Furci, Ricardo Galán Márquez, Matteo Garbelotto, Joaquina María García-Martín, Mónica A.García Otálora, Dania García Sánchez, Alain Gardiennet, Sigisfredo Garnica, Isaac Garrido Benavent, Genevieve Gates, Alice da Cruz Lima Gerlach, Masoomeh Ghobad-Nejhad, Tatiana B. Gibertoni, Tine Grebenc, Irmgard Greilhuber, Bella Grishkan, Johannes Z. Groenewald, Martin Grube, Gérald Gruhn, Cécile Gueidan, Gro Gulden, Luis F.P. Gusmão, Josef Hafellner, Michel Hairaud, Marek Halama, Nils Hallenberg, Roy E. Halling, Karen Hansen, Christoffer Bugge Harder, Jacob Heilmann-Clausen, Stip Helleman, Alain Henriot, Margarita Hernandez-Restrepo, Raphaël Herve, Caroline Hobart, Mascha Hoffmeister, Klaus Høiland, Jan Holec, Håkon Holien, Karen Hughes, Vit Hubka, Seppo Huhtinen, Boris Ivancevic, Marian Jagers, Walter Jaklitsch, Anna Elise Jansen, Ruvishika S. Jayawardena, Thomas Stjernegaard Jeppesen, Mikael Jeppson, Peter Johnston, Per Magnus Jørgensen, Ingvar Kärnefelt, Liudmila B. Kalinina, Gintaras Kantvilas, Mitko Karadelev, Taiga Kasuya, Ivona Kautmanová, Richard W. Kerrigan, Martin Kirchmair, Anna Kiyashko, Dániel G. Knapp, Henning Knudsen, Kerry Knudsen, Tommy Knutsson, Miroslav Kolarík, Urmas Kõljalg, Alica Košuthová, Attila Koszka, Heikki Kotiranta, Vera Kotkova, Ondrej Koukol, Jirí Kout, Gábor M. Kovács, Martin Kríž, Asa Kruys, Viktor Kucera, Linas Kudzma, Francisco Kuhar, Martin Kukwa, T. K. Arun Kumar, Vladimír Kunca, Ivana Kušan, Thomas W. Kuyper, Carlos Lado, Thomas Læssøe, Patrice Lainé, Ewald Langer, Ellen Larsson, Karl Henrik Larsson, Gary Laursen, Christian Lechat, Serena Lee, James C. Lendemer, Laura Levin, Uwe Lindemann, Håkan Lindström, Xingzhong Liu, Regulo Carlos Llarena Hernandez, Esteve Llop, Csaba Locsmándi, Deborah Jean Lodge, Michael Loizides, László Lokös, Jennifer Luangsa-Ard, Matthias Lüderitz, Thorsten Lumbsch, Matthias Lutz, Dan Mahoney, Ekaterina Malysheva, Vera Malysheva, Patinjareveettil Manimohan, Yasmina Marin-Felix, Guilhermina Marques, Rubén Martínez-Gil, Guy Marson, Gerardo Mata, P. Brandon Matheny, Geir Harald Mathiassen, Neven Matocec, Helmut Mayrhofer, Mehdi Mehrabi, Ireneia Melo, Armin Mešic, Andrew S. Methven, Otto Miettinen, Ana M.Millanes Romero, Andrew N. Miller, James K. Mitchell, Roland Moberg, Pierre Arthur Moreau, Gabriel Moreno, Olga Morozova, Asunción Morte, Lucia Muggia, Guillermo Muñoz González, Leena Myllys, István Nagy, László G. Nagy, Maria Alice Neves, Tuomo Niemelä, Pier Luigi Nimis, Nicolas Niveiro, Machiel E. Noordeloos, Anders Nordin, Sara Raouia Noumeur, Yuri Novozhilov, Jorinde Nuytinck, Esteri Ohenoja, Patricia Oliveira Fiuza, Alan Orange, Alexander Ordynets, Beatriz Ortiz-Santana, Leticia Pacheco, Ferenc Pál-Fám, Melissa Palacio, Zdenek Palice, Viktor Papp, Kadri Pärtel, Julia Pawlowska, Aurelia Paz, Ursula Peintner, Shaun Pennycook, Olinto Liparini Pereira, Pablo Pérez Daniëls, Miquel À.Pérez De Gregorio Capella, Carlos Manuel Pérez del Amo, Sergio Pérez Gorjón, Sergio Pérez-Ortega, Israel Pérez-Vargas, Brian A. Perry, Jens H. Petersen, Ronald H. Petersen, Donald H. Pfister, Chayanard Phukhamsakda, Marcin Piatek, Meike Piepenbring, Raquel Pino-Bodas, Juan Pablo Pinzón Esquivel, Paul Pirot, Eugene S. Popov, Orlando Popoff, María Prieto Álvaro, Christian Printzen, Nadezhda Psurtseva, Witoon Purahong, Luis Quijada, Gerhard Rambold, Natalia A. Ramírez, Huzefa Raja, Olivier Raspé, Tania Raymundo, Martina Réblová, Yury A. Rebriev, Juan de Dios Reyes García, Miguel ángel Ribes Ripoll, Franck Richard, Mike J. Richardson, Víctor J. Rico, Gerardo Lucio Robledo, Flavia Rodrigues Barbosa, Cristina Rodriguez-Caycedo, Pamela Rodriguez-Flakus, Anna Ronikier, Luis Rubio Casas, Katerina Rusevska, Günter Saar, Irja Saar, Isabel Salcedo, Sergio M.Salcedo Martínez, Carlos A.Salvador Montoya, Santiago Sánchez-Ramírez, J. Vladimir Sandoval-Sierra, Sergi Santamaria, Josiane Santana Monteiro, Hans Josef Schroers, Barbara Schulz, Geert Schmidt-Stohn, Trond Schumacher, Beatrice Senn-Irlet, Hana Ševcíková, Oleg Shchepin, Takashi Shirouzu, Anton Shiryaev, Klaus Siepe, Esteban B. Sir, Mohammad Sohrabi, Karl Soop, Viacheslav Spirin, Toby Spribille, Marc Stadler, Joost Stalpers, Soili Stenroos, Ave Suija, Stellan Sunhede, Sten Svantesson, Sigvard Svensson, Tatyana Yu Svetasheva, Krzysztof Swierkosz, Heidi Tamm, Hatira Taskin, Adrien Taudière, Jan Olof Tedebrand, Raúl Tena Lahoz, Marina Temina, Arne Thell, Marco Thines, Göran Thor, Holger Thüs, Leif Tibell, Sanja Tibell, Einar Timdal, Zdenko Tkalcec, Tor Tønsberg, Gérard Trichies, Dagmar Triebel, Andrei Tsurykau, Rodham E. Tulloss, Veera Tuovinen, Miguel Ulloa Sosa, Carlos Urcelay, François Valade, Ricardo Valenzuela Garza, Pieter van den Boom, Nicolas Van Vooren, Aida M. Vasco-Palacios, Jukka Vauras, Juan Manuel Velasco Santos, Else Vellinga, Annemieke Verbeken, Per Vetlesen, Alfredo Vizzini, Hermann Voglmayr, Sergey Volobuev, Wolfgang von Brackel, Elena Voronina, Grit Walther, Roy Watling, Evi Weber, Mats Wedin, Øyvind Weholt, Martin Westberg, Eugene Yurchenko, Petr Zehnálek, Huang Zhang, Mikhail P. Zhurbenko, Stefan Ekman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11th International Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)167-175
Number of pages9
JournalIMA Fungus
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 International Mycological Association.

Keywords

  • IMC11 nomenclature
  • Speciation
  • Taxonomy
  • Typification
  • Voucherless fungi

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)

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