Sponsor
Funding was provided by the US National Science Foundation (DEB 1841658, DEB 1557042 and EAR 1516680) to B.H., A.-L.R. and A.M.; the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103440) from the National Institutes of Health to B.H.; the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PGC2018-096956-B-C41 and PID2021-126114NB-C42) to R.R.; the Australian Research Council (FL150100038) to P.H.; the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation, SFB 1439/1 2021—426547801) and European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) to A.P.; and the International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) to all authors.
Published In
Nature Microbiology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2022
Subjects
Bacterial genomes
Abstract
Most prokaryotes are not available as pure cultures and therefore ineligible for naming under the rules and recommendations of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP). Here we summarize the development of the SeqCode, a code of nomenclature under which genome sequences serve as nomenclatural types. This code enables valid publication of names of prokaryotes based upon isolate genome, metagenome-assembled genome or single-amplified genome sequences. Otherwise, it is similar to the ICNP with regard to the formation of names and rules of priority. It operates through the SeqCode Registry (https://seqco.de/), a registration portal through which names and nomenclatural types are registered, validated and linked to metadata. We describe the two paths currently available within SeqCode to register and validate names, including Candidatus names, and provide examples for both. Recommendations on minimal standards for DNA sequences are provided. Thus, the SeqCode provides a reproducible and objective framework for the nomenclature of all prokaryotes regardless of cultivability and facilitates communication across microbiological disciplines.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1038/s41564-022-01214-9
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38579
Citation Details
Hedlund, B. P., Chuvochina, M., Hugenholtz, P., Konstantinidis, K. T., Murray, A. E., Palmer, M., ... & Whitman, W. B. (2022). SeqCode: a nomenclatural code for prokaryotes described from sequence data. Nature Microbiology, 1-7.