Necessary corrections to the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names according to Rule 40d (formerly Rule 46). Request for an Opinion

This article presents a formal request to correct authorship and dates for ten bacterial subspecies names listed in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names. The corrections are necessary to comply with Rule 40d of the Bacteriological Code, which states that when a new species is named, an automatically created subspecies (with identical specific and subspecific epithets) must retain the same author(s) and publication date as the original species name. The authors identified discrepancies where subspecies names in the Approved Lists were attributed to different authors and dates than the species names from which they were derived. Examples include Acetobacter aceti subsp. aceti, Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus, and Zymomonas mobilis subsp. mobilis. The authors request that the Judicial Commission of the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology formally approve these corrections to avoid confusion and ensure nomenclatural consistency across bacterial taxonomy.

Key findings

• Ten bacterial subspecies names in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names have incorrect authorship and dates according to Rule 40d of the Bacteriological Code
• Rule 40d requires that automatically created subspecies names share the same author(s) and publication date as their parent species names
• The corrections involve common bacteria including Acetobacter, Campylobacter, Mycobacterium, and Zymomonas species
• Formal approval from the Judicial Commission is requested to correct these nomenclatural errors and prevent future confusion