Legitimacy is an essential concept of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes - a major revision of the Code is called for

Enlightening the taxonomy darkness of human gut microbiomes with a cultured biobank

BACKGROUND

In gut microbiome studies, the cultured gut microbial resource plays essential roles, such as helping to unravel gut microbial functions and host-microbe interactions. Although several major studies have been performed to elucidate the cultured human gut microbiota, up to 70% of the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome species have not been cultured to date. Large-scale gut microbial isolation and identification as well as availability to the public are imperative for gut microbial studies and further characterizing human gut microbial functions.

RESULTS

In this study, we constructed a human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB; homepage: hgmb.nmdc.cn ) through the cultivation of 10,558 isolates from 31 sample mixtures of 239 fresh fecal samples from healthy Chinese volunteers, and deposited 1170 strains representing 400 different species in culture collections of the International Depository Authority for long-term preservation and public access worldwide. Following the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes, 102 new species were characterized and denominated, while 28 new genera and 3 new families were proposed. hGMB represented over 80% of the common and dominant human gut microbial genera and species characterized from global human gut 16S rRNA gene amplicon data (n = 11,647) and cultured 24 "most-wanted" and "medium priority" taxa proposed by the Human Microbiome Project. We in total sequenced 115 genomes representing 102 novel taxa and 13 previously known species. Further in silico analysis revealed that the newly sequenced hGMB genomes represented 22 previously uncultured species in the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome (UHGG) and contributed 24 representatives of potentially "dark taxa" that had not been discovered by UHGG. The nonredundant gene catalogs generated from the hGMB genomes covered over 50% of the functionally known genes (KEGG orthologs) in the largest global human gut gene catalogs and approximately 10% of the "most wanted" functionally unknown proteins in the FUnkFams database.

CONCLUSIONS

A publicly accessible human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) was established that contained 1170 strains and represents 400 human gut microbial species. hGMB expands the gut microbial resources and genomic repository by adding 102 novel species, 28 new genera, 3 new families, and 115 new genomes of human gut microbes. Video abstract.

The family name Solimonadaceae Losey et al. 2013 is illegitimate, proposals to create the names ‘Sinobacter soli’ comb. nov. and ‘Sinobacter variicoloris’ contravene the Code, the family name Xanthomonadaceae Saddler and Bradbury 2005 and the order name Xanthomonadales Saddler and Bradbury 2005 are illegitimate and notes on the application of the family names Solibacteraceae Zhou et al. 2008, Nevskiaceae Henrici and Johnson 1935 (Approved Lists 1980) and Lysobacteraceae Christensen and Cook 1978 (Approved Lists 1980) and order name Lysobacteriales Christensen and Cook 1978 (Approved Lists 1980) with respect to the classification of the corresponding type genera Solibacter Zhou et al. 2008, Nevskia Famintzin 1892 (Approved Lists 1980) and Lysobacter Christensen and Cook 1978 (Approved Lists 1980) and importance of accurately expressing the link between a taxonomic name, its authors and the corresponding description/circumscription/emendation

In a recent publication the name Solimonadaceae Losey et al. 2013 has been proposed as a replacement name for the family name Sinobacteraceae Zhou et al. 2008. This course of action contravenes the current Code governing the nomenclature of prokaryotes, making Solimonadaceae Losey et al. 2013 an illegitimate name that neither has claim to priority nor can be used as a correct name. Closer examination of publications dealing with the taxonomy of members of the genera Solimonas and Sinobacter and the placement of these taxa at the rank of family and order reveal problems associated with the application of the family names Sinobacteraceae Zhou et al. 2008, Nevskiaceae Henrici and Johnson 1935 (Approved Lists 1980) and Lysobacteraceae Christensen and Cook 1978 (Approved Lists 1980) and the order names Lysobacterales Christensen and Cook 1978 (Approved Lists 1980) and Xanthomonadales Saddler and Bradbury 2005.

The correct name of the taxon that contains the type strain of Rhodococcus equi

Based on a nomenclatural point of view, the name Rhodococcus equi is associated, as required by the Bacteriological Code, with a defined position, rank and circumscription. A search of the literature indicates that the name Rhodococcus equi (Magnusson 1923) Goodfellow and Alderson 1977 has also been shown to be a synonym of Corynebacterium equi Magnusson 1923, Corynebacterium hoagii (Morse 1912) Eberson 1918 and Nocardia restricta (Turfitt 1944) McClung 1974. Application of the rules of the Bacteriological Code together with the currently inferred taxonomic concept associated with the species bearing the name Rhodococcus equi indicates that this is not the correct name of this taxon and the use of that name in the context of a circumscription that includes the type strain of the species Corynebacterium hoagii is contrary to the Rules of the Code.