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Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?

Genomics has put prokaryotic rank-based taxonomy on a solid phylogenetic foundation. However, most taxonomic ranks were set long before the advent of DNA sequencing and genomics. In this concept paper, we thus ask the following question: should prokaryotic classification schemes besides the current...

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Autores principales: Pritchard, Leighton, Brown, C. Titus, Harrington, Bailey, Heath, Lenwood S., Pierce-Ward, N. Tessa, Vinatzer, Boris A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9160990/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35663905
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.887310
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author Pritchard, Leighton
Brown, C. Titus
Harrington, Bailey
Heath, Lenwood S.
Pierce-Ward, N. Tessa
Vinatzer, Boris A.
author_facet Pritchard, Leighton
Brown, C. Titus
Harrington, Bailey
Heath, Lenwood S.
Pierce-Ward, N. Tessa
Vinatzer, Boris A.
author_sort Pritchard, Leighton
collection PubMed
description Genomics has put prokaryotic rank-based taxonomy on a solid phylogenetic foundation. However, most taxonomic ranks were set long before the advent of DNA sequencing and genomics. In this concept paper, we thus ask the following question: should prokaryotic classification schemes besides the current phylum-to-species ranks be explored, developed, and incorporated into scientific discourse? Could such alternative schemes provide better solutions to the basic need of science and society for which taxonomy was developed, namely, precise and meaningful identification? A neutral genome-similarity based framework is then described that could allow alternative classification schemes to be explored, compared, and translated into each other without having to choose only one as the gold standard. Classification schemes could thus continue to evolve and be selected according to their benefits and based on how well they fulfill the need for prokaryotic identification.
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spelling pubmed-91609902022-06-03 Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society? Pritchard, Leighton Brown, C. Titus Harrington, Bailey Heath, Lenwood S. Pierce-Ward, N. Tessa Vinatzer, Boris A. Front Microbiol Microbiology Genomics has put prokaryotic rank-based taxonomy on a solid phylogenetic foundation. However, most taxonomic ranks were set long before the advent of DNA sequencing and genomics. In this concept paper, we thus ask the following question: should prokaryotic classification schemes besides the current phylum-to-species ranks be explored, developed, and incorporated into scientific discourse? Could such alternative schemes provide better solutions to the basic need of science and society for which taxonomy was developed, namely, precise and meaningful identification? A neutral genome-similarity based framework is then described that could allow alternative classification schemes to be explored, compared, and translated into each other without having to choose only one as the gold standard. Classification schemes could thus continue to evolve and be selected according to their benefits and based on how well they fulfill the need for prokaryotic identification. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9160990/ /pubmed/35663905 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.887310 Text en Copyright © 2022 Pritchard, Brown, Harrington, Heath, Pierce-Ward and Vinatzer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Pritchard, Leighton
Brown, C. Titus
Harrington, Bailey
Heath, Lenwood S.
Pierce-Ward, N. Tessa
Vinatzer, Boris A.
Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?
title Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?
title_full Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?
title_fullStr Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?
title_full_unstemmed Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?
title_short Could a Focus on the “Why” of Taxonomy Help Taxonomy Better Respond to the Needs of Science and Society?
title_sort could a focus on the “why” of taxonomy help taxonomy better respond to the needs of science and society?
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9160990/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35663905
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.887310
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