Westerdijk Spring Symposium "DNA Sequences as Type"

The Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute has now started planning the 2025 Spring Symposium, “DNA Sequences as Type”, which will take place on 7-8 April 2025 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Previous important and successful Westerdijk Spring Symposia, One Fungus = One Name (2011), One Fungus = Which Name (2012) and One Fungus = Which Genes (2013), Genera and Genomes (2014), the Second International Workshop on Ascomycete Systematics (2015), Fungi and Global Challenges (2016), Leading Women in Fungal Biology (2017), Rise of the Fungi (2022), and Fungal Evolution (2023) had a great impact on the mycological community. Topics of the “DNA Sequences as Type” symposium will include:

• naming of environmental sequences (dark taxa);
• using DNA sequence data as holotype;
• naming species based on DNA characters only; and
• a species is more than its DNA sequence only.

Nomenclatural types have to date been physical specimens that were studied and re-studied by researchers over time. Proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (without any specimens) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (chiefly taxa identified from environmental DNA sequences or from single-celled early diverging lineages), were discussed and voted on at IMC11 (Puerto Rico, 2018) and IMC12 (Maastricht, 2024), without reaching any consensus. Although relying on DNA data only seems an easy fix for taxa only known from environmental sequences, there is a danger that the system could be misused, artificially inflate the number of species, or be prone to error, as other than the DNA sequence, there will be no specimen to go back to. Is there an alternative solution to naming these putative taxa that does not require any modification of the ICN, or should we simply pull the trigger, and see what happens? If we pull the trigger, what should the target look like?

So what are the proposals and next steps? Come and provide your opinion, support, or objections, and participate in talks and roundtable discussions with focus on systematics, nomenclature, impact, and relevance. Whether you are in support of, or against, now is the time to grab this opportunity to help shape the proposals that will be published as a community paper(s) in IMA Fungus before they are formally introduced to be voted upon at IMC13 (18-19 Aug 2027, Incheon, South Korea), with direct impact on the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants.

News reference: https://www.ima-mycology.org/index.php/news/westerdijk-spring-symposium