Biological nomenclature terms for facilitating communication in the naming of organisms

Abstract Abstract

A set of terms recommended for use in facilitating communication in biological nomenclature is presented as a table showing broadly equivalent terms used in the traditional Codes of nomenclature. These terms are intended to help those engaged in naming across organism groups, and are the result of the work of the International Committee on Bionomenclature, whose aim is to promote harmonisation and communication amongst those naming life on Earth.

The International Committee on Bionomenclature (ICB, http://www.bionomenclature.net/) met in Berlin from 26–28 April 2012. As a part of this meeting it reviewed the status of communication between and change in the various international sets of rules that biologists follow when naming organisms – the Codes of nomenclature. The group exchanged updates on the status of the Codes (see Table 1 for abbreviations used for the various Codes of nomenclature) and discussed how to enhance inter-community communication with the aim of bringing together those concerned with naming life on Earth.

Table 1.

Recommended terms for use in biological nomenclature with a comparison of equivalents across six current Codes of nomenclature

Bionomenclature	ICN1	ICNCP2	ICNP3	ICVCN4	ICZN5	PhyloCode6
Publication and precedence of names
published	effectively published	published	effectively published	[none]	published	published
precedence/priority	priority	priority	priority	[none]	precedence/priority	precedence
earlier	earlier	earlier	earlier	[none]	senior	earlier
later	later	later	later	[none]	junior	later
Nomenclatural status
established	validly published	established	validly published	established	available	established
compliant	legitimate	acceptable	legitimate	valid	potentially valid	acceptable
non-compliant	illegitimate	[none]	illegitimate	[none]	permanently invalid	[none]
registered	[deposited]	registered	validly published	[none]	registered	registered
Taxonomic status
accepted	correct	accepted	correct	accepted	valid	accepted
Synonymy and homonymy
homotypic	homotypic	[none]	homotypic	[none]	objective	homodefinitional
heterotypic	heterotypic	[none]	heterotypic	[none]	subjective	heterodefinitional
replacement name	replacement name	replacement name	replacement name	[none]	new replacement	replacement name
Conservation and suppression
conserved	conserved	conserved	conserved	[none]	conserved	conserved
protected	listed	[none]	listed7	accepted	protected	[none]
sanctioned (fungi only)	sanctioned (fungi only)	[none]	[none]	[none]	[none]	[none]
suppressed/rejected	rejected	rejected	rejected	[none]	suppressed	suppressed
Types of names
name-bearing type	nomenclatural type	nomenclatural standard	nomenclatural type	[none]	name-bearing type	[none]
nominal taxon	name and type	[none]	name and type	[none]	nominal taxon	[none]

¹ International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) or Melbourne Code (McNeill et al. 2012). It is expected to be available online in 2013 at http://www.iapt-taxon.org

² International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP) or Cultivated Plant Code, 8th edition (Brickell et al. 2009); http://www.actahort.org/chronica/pdf/sh_10.pdf

³ International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (the name adopted for the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (Lapage et al. 1992), see Labeda 2000): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8817/)

⁴ The International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN), in Virus Taxonomy (ed. King et al. 2011)

⁵ International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), 4th edition (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999): http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/

⁶ International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature or PhyloCode, version 4c (Cantino and Queiroz 2010): http://www.ohio.edu/phylocode/

⁷ Listed in the sense of appearing on The Approved Lists of Bacterial Names

Recent progress on developing a Global Names Architecture (http://www.globalnames.org) has meant that the communities working on the various indices for a variety of organism groups are not only working in their own domains, but are increasingly developing technological solutions to enable more efficient retrieval of names of all organisms, along with information pertaining to their first publication. As groups focused on the nomenclature of various organisms work more closely together, efficient communication becomes ever more important. Recent changes in the rules governing the naming of prokaryotes (Labeda 2000; and for example Labeda and Oren 2011) and of algae, fungi and plants (see Hawksworth 2011; Knapp et al. 2011; McNeill and Turland 2011), in addition to those proposed for zoology (e.g., International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 2008), are bringing the terminology used in and practices of the Codes closer together, and the Committee felt that agreement on a basic set of terms to be used when engaging in inter-community communication would greatly assist this on-going process. Naming of organisms is so critical that it is important that we work together on a greater consistency in nomenclatural practices to enable a swifter, more efficient documentation of biodiversity and help meet the global challenges of understanding Earth’s genetic diversity and resources.

This table of terms is not comprehensive, but includes those terms that differ (or have differed in the past) significantly and have the potential to cause confusion. It is based on the table of equivalence of technical terms arising from discussions on harmonisation of nomenclature (Hawksworth 1995) and that accompanying the first Draft BioCode (Greuter et al. 1996). These early attempts have here been updated to reflect current usage of terms in the various Codes. As with the early tables, the terms in each row are not perfectly congruent. We recommend the use of these terms to facilitate communication between those working with the nomenclature of different groups of organisms without necessarily displacing those used by tradition within the various communities. These terms can be employed where considered of value in presentations, publications, and teaching, as well as in discussions between the communities who use the different Codes. We invite and welcome comment on the commended terms, and suggestions for other terms that have caused confusion that might be added – our aim is not to impose practice, but to facilitate communication among all involved in the naming of organisms of all kinds.

Current membership of the International Committee on Bionomenclature

(ICB – contact details for all members are available at http://www.bionomenclature.net/)

Michael J. Adams, Rothamsted, UK

Philip D. Cantino, Athens Ohio, USA

John David, Wisley, Surrey, UK

George Garrity, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

Daphne Fautin, Lawrence, Kansas, USA

Werner Greuter, Berlin, Germany and Palermo, Italy

David L. Hawksworth, London, UK and Madrid, Spain

Regine Jahn, Berlin, Germany (Deputy Secretary)

Paul M Kirk, Egham, Surrey, UK

John McNeill, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and Toronto, Canada

Ellinor Michel, London, UK (Vice-Chair)

Sandra Knapp, London, UK (Chair)

David Patterson; Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA (Secretary)

Richard Pyle, Honolulu, Hawa’i, USA

David Remsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Gary Rosenberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Brian Tindall, Braunschweig, Germany

Jonathan A. Todd, London, UK

Jan van Tol, Leiden, The Netherlands

Nick Turland, St. Louis, Missouri, USA