Overview of changes affecting fungal nomenclature in the International Code of Nomenclature and progress of nomenclatural working groups
K. A. SEIFERT (1), A. N. Miller (2). (1) Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Ottawa, ON, Canada; (2) Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, U.S.A.
In August 2011, the mycological world was alternatively stunned or delighted by changes to the rules governing the naming of fungi, published in early 2013 in a renamed International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (ICN). The most dramatic change was the formal abandonment of >100 years of dual nomenclature, and the adoption of a system where only one binomial can be validly applied to a single fungal species in all its morphological forms. The nomenclatural principle of priority is to be applied, meaning that the oldest genus and species names must be combined, irrespective of whether they originally were intended as teleomorph or anamorph names. The intricacies of this adjustment will be discussed, to provide context for the subsequent speakers, who will discuss specific examples relevant to plant pathologists. The international mycological community, led by the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi (ICTF), the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi (NCF), and several other bodies, has responded by mobilizing existing taxonomically oriented Commissions and Subcommissions and establishing new Working Groups, with the goal of proposing lists of accepted names for the 10th International Mycological Congress in Bangkok, Thailand in August 2014. The activities of these groups will be summarized, with a view to maximizing participation by all interested scientists, including those whose primary focus may not be taxonomy.
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