International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes

The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) or Prokaryotic Code, formerly the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (BC), governs the scientific names for Bacteria and Archaea.^[1]^[2] It denotes the rules for naming taxa of bacteria, according to their relative rank. As such it is one of the nomenclature codes of biology.

Originally the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature dealt with bacteria, and this kept references to bacteria until these were eliminated at the 1975 International Botanical Congress. An early Code for the nomenclature of bacteria was approved at the 4th International Congress for Microbiology in 1947, but was later discarded.

The latest version to be printed in book form is the 1990 Revision,^[3] but the book does not represent the current rules. The 2008 and 2022 Revisions have been published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM).^[2] Rules are maintained by the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP; formerly the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology, ICSB).

The baseline for bacterial names is the Approved Lists^[4] with a starting point of 1980. New bacterial names are reviewed by the ICSP as being in conformity with the Rules of Nomenclature and published in the IJSEM.

^ "Home". the-icsp.org.
^ ^a ^b P. H. A. Sneath, 2003. A short history of the Bacteriological Code URL Archived 2012-05-24 at the Wayback Machine
^ Lapage, S. P.; Sneath, P. H. A.; Lessel, E. F.; Skerman, V. B. D.; Seeliger, H. P. R.; Clark, W. A. (March 5, 1992). "Rules of Nomenclature with Recommendations". ASM Press – via ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
^ VBD Skerman, Vicki McGowan, and PHA Sneath, 1989. Approved Lists of Bacterial Names, Amended edition Washington (DC): ASM Press

[1] "Home". the-icsp.org.

[Sneath-2] P. H. A. Sneath, 2003. A short history of the Bacteriological Code URL Archived 2012-05-24 at the Wayback Machine

[3] Lapage, S. P.; Sneath, P. H. A.; Lessel, E. F.; Skerman, V. B. D.; Seeliger, H. P. R.; Clark, W. A. (March 5, 1992). "Rules of Nomenclature with Recommendations". ASM Press – via ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

[4] VBD Skerman, Vicki McGowan, and PHA Sneath, 1989. Approved Lists of Bacterial Names, Amended edition Washington (DC): ASM Press

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