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Science depends on nomenclature, but nomenclature is not science

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 20, pages 123–124 (2022)Cite this article

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The International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP) has recently altered long-standing phylum names and given no guidance for taxonomy of uncultured or imperfectly cultured archaea and bacteria, disrupting progress towards a universal system of microbial taxonomy. Inclusion of new members into ICSP may help it to keep up to date.

Official names of bacteria and archaea are determined by the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), comprised of 26 scientists representing major international microbial societies, with no membership from South or Central America or most of Africa or Asia. Recently, ICSP reversed its long-standing policy of not assigning phylum names, disrupting commonly used names1. This decision should be viewed in the context of the fact that ICSP has not assumed responsibility for naming bacteria and archaea that are not readily cultured. Here, we describe the way ICSP naming works currently, how it fails some of the demands of modern microbiology, and how recent name changes make it worse. We then propose solutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbiology Department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Karen G. Lloyd

  2. Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, University of Wageningen, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Guillaume Tahon

Authors
  1. Karen G. Lloyd
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  2. Guillaume Tahon
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Correspondence to Karen G. Lloyd.

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Lloyd, K.G., Tahon, G. Science depends on nomenclature, but nomenclature is not science. Nat Rev Microbiol 20, 123–124 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00684-2

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