Codes and Abbreviations for Approved or Effectively Published Names of Genera of Bacteria Published from January 1980 to December 1990

This article presents an expanded list of standardized four-letter abbreviations for bacterial genus names published between January 1980 and December 1990. The authors, working with the BIOSIS Register of Bacterial Nomenclature database, compiled 103 new genus names that received valid or effective publication status since the previous 1986 update. The abbreviation system was originally developed in 1976 to facilitate computer processing and data indexing of microbiological information while maintaining mnemonic quality through selective use of letters from genus names. The paper includes two main tables: Table 1 lists approved and validly published bacterial genera with their corresponding four-letter codes, while Table 2 provides abbreviations for bacterial names lacking official nomenclatural standing but still appearing in scientific literature. The authors corrected several orthographically incorrect names from previous lists and updated nomenclatural changes based on data from journals, books, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names, and nomenclatural change indices. This standardized coding system serves as an essential reference tool for organizing and retrieving microbiological data in computer databases and information systems.

Key findings

• 103 new bacterial genus names were assigned standardized four-letter abbreviations for the period 1980-1990, expanding upon the 1986 reference list
• Four-letter abbreviations were selected to minimize computer storage requirements while allowing mnemonic associations with genus names
• Nineteen previously unofficial names were incorporated into the approved list after receiving valid publication status
• Orthographically incorrect genus names from earlier lists were corrected, with proper spellings assigned the original abbreviations
• The standardized abbreviation system facilitates data processing, indexing, and retrieval in computerized microbiological databases and information systems