IMA Fungus 12(1): e33942, doi: 10.1186/s43008-021-00067-x
Nomenclatural issues concerning cultured yeasts and other fungi: why it is important to avoid unneeded name changes
expand article infoAndrey Yurkov‡, Artur Alves, Feng-yan Bai§|, Kyria Boundy-Mills, Pietro Buzzini#, Neža Čadež¤, Gianluigi Cardinali«, Serge Casaregola», Vishnu Chaturvedi˄, Valérie Collin˅, Jack W. Fell¦, Ferry Hagenˀ, Chris Hittingerˁ, Aleksey Kachalkin₵ℓ, Chris Todd Hittinger₰, Vassili N. Kouvelis₱, Markus Kostrzewa₳, Xin-zhan Liu, Diego Libkind₴, Xinzhan Liu₣, Thomas Maier₳, Marcin Piatek₮, Gábor Péter₦, Carlos Rosa₭, Jose Paulo Sampaio, Carlos A. Rosa₲, Jose Paulo Sampaio‽, Marc Stadler₩, Marc Stadler₸, Takashi Sugita‡‡, Junta Sugiyama§§, Masako Takashima||, Benedetta Turchetti¶¶, Qi-Ming Wang##, Qi-Ming Wang₣, Teun Boekhout¤¤
‡ Leibniz Institute DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany§ Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China| University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China¶ University of California, Department of Food Science and Technology, Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Davis# University of Perugia, Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences & Industrial Yeasts Collection DBVPG, Perugia, Italy¤ University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia« University of Perugia, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Perugia, Italy» Université Paris-Saclay, Micalis Institute, INRA, AgroParisTech, CIRM-Levures, Jouy-en-Josas, France˄ Mycology Laboratory, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany˅ BioMérieux, R&D Microbiologie, La Balme les Grottes, France¦ University of Miami, Emeritus Professor, Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Key Biscayneˀ University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlandsˁ University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States of America₵ M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russiaℓ G.K. Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms of RAS, PSCBR RAS, Pushchino, Russia₰ University of Wisconsin-Madison, Laboratory of Genetics, Wisconsin Energy Institute, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J. F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, Madison₱ Section of Genetics and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece, Athens, Greece₳ Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen, Germany₴ Centro de Referencia en Levaduras y Tecnología Cervecera (CRELTEC), Instituto Andino Patagónico de Tecnologías Biológicas y Geoambientales (IPATEC) CONICET - Universidad Nacional del Comahue, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina₣ Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Beijing₮ W.Szafer Institute of Botany, Krakow, Poland₦ Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, National Collection of Agricultural and Industrial Microorganisms, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Budapest, Hungary₭ Univ Fed Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil₲ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Belo Horizonte, Brazil‽ Universidade Nova de Lisboa, UCIBIO, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Caparica, Portugal₩ Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany₸ Department Microbial Drugs, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, and German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Braunschweig, Germany‡‡ Meiji Pharmaceutical University, Department of Microbiology, Tokyo, Japan§§ Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, Japan|| Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan¶¶ University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy## Hebei University, Baoding, China¤¤ King Saud University, College of Science, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
© Andrey Yurkov, Artur Alves, Feng-yan Bai, Kyria Boundy-Mills, Pietro Buzzini, Neža Čadež, Gianluigi Cardinali, Serge Casaregola, Vishnu Chaturvedi, Valérie Collin, Jack Fell, Ferry Hagen, Chris Hittinger, Aleksey Kachalkin, Chris Hittinger, Vassili N. Kouvelis, Markus Kostrzewa, Xin-zhan Liu, Diego Libkind, Xinzhan Liu, Thomas Maier, Marcin Piatek, Gábor Péter, Carlos Rosa, Jose Paulo Sampaio, Carlos Rosa, Jose Sampaio, Marc Stadler, Marc Stadler, Takashi Sugita, Junta Sugiyama, Masako Takashima, Benedetta Turchetti, Qi-Ming Wang, Qi-Ming Wang, Teun Boekhout.
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Citation: Yurkov A, Alves A, Bai F-yan, Boundy-Mills K, Buzzini P, Čadež N, Cardinali G, Casaregola S, Chaturvedi V, Collin V, Fell JW, Hagen F, Hittinger C, Kachalkin A, Hittinger C, Kouvelis VN, Kostrzewa M, Liu X-zhan, Libkind D, Liu X, Maier T, Piatek M, Péter G, Rosa C, Sampaio JP, Rosa CA, Sampaio J, Stadler M, Stadler M, Sugita T, Sugiyama J, Takashima M, Turchetti B, Wang Q-M, Wang Q-M, Boekhout T (2021) Nomenclatural issues concerning cultured yeasts and other fungi: why it is important to avoid unneeded name changes. IMA Fungus 12(1): e33942. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-021-00067-x
Open Access
Abstract
The unambiguous application of fungal names is important to communicate scientific findings. Names are critical for (clinical) diagnostics, legal compliance, and regulatory controls, such as biosafety, food security, quarantine regulations, and industrial applications. Consequently, the stability of the taxonomic system and the traceability of nomenclatural changes is crucial for a broad range of users and taxonomists. The unambiguous application of names is assured by the preservation of nomenclatural history and the physical organisms representing a name. Fungi are extremely diverse in terms of ecology, lifestyle, and methods of study. Predominantly unicellular fungi known as yeasts are usually investigated as living cultures. Methods to characterize yeasts include physiological (growth) tests and experiments to induce a sexual morph; both methods require viable cultures. Thus, the preservation and availability of viable reference cultures are important, and cultures representing reference material are cited in species descriptions. Historical surveys revealed drawbacks and inconsistencies between past practices and modern requirements as stated in the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (ICNafp). Improper typification of yeasts is a common problem, resulting in a large number invalid yeast species names. With this opinion letter, we address the problem that culturable microorganisms, notably some fungi and algae, require specific provisions under the ICNafp. We use yeasts as a prominent example of fungi known from cultures. But viable type material is important not only for yeasts, but also for other cultivable Fungi that are characterized by particular morphological structures (a specific type of spores), growth properties, and secondary metabolites. We summarize potential proposals which, in our opinion, will improve the stability of fungal names, in particular by protecting those names for which the reference material can be traced back to the original isolate.
Keywords
Typification, Nomenclatural type, Culture collection, Metabolically inactive, Viable strains