MycoBank

MycoBank
Name	MycoBank
Formation	2004
Type	Non-profit database
Headquarters	Utrecht
Region served	Global
Website	MycoBank

MycoBank is an online repository that registers new names of fungal taxa, providing nomenclatural validation, nomenclatural data, and metadata for taxonomic work. It operates within a network of botanical and mycological institutions, collaborating with taxonomic authorities, herbaria, and journals to standardize fungal names and link nomenclature to specimens, cultures, and publications. The service supports researchers, curators, and publishers by integrating with indexing systems and international codes governing biological nomenclature.

History

MycoBank emerged in 2004 through initiatives involving Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, and mycologists associated with International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi, responding to updates in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Early development involved collaborations with institutions such as Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Natural History Museum, London, Smithsonian Institution, and universities including Utrecht University, University of Copenhagen, and University of California, Berkeley. Funding and support have included grants and partnerships with agencies like the European Commission, National Science Foundation, and foundations such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. MycoBank’s milestones align with international meetings like the International Botanical Congress and policy changes driven by assemblies including the International Mycological Congress.

Purpose and scope

MycoBank’s primary purpose is to provide authoritative registration for new fungal names, complying with rules from the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and resolutions from the Nomenclature Section of the International Botanical Congress. Its scope covers fungal taxa across ranks recognized in works by authorities such as Index Fungorum, Species Fungorum, and databases hosted by Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Catalogue of Life, and World Register of Marine Species. The platform serves stakeholders including taxonomists at institutions like Universidade de São Paulo, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Tokyo, and collections at museums such as Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and Australian National Herbarium.

Database content and services

MycoBank stores nomenclatural entries with links to protologues, typification details, illustrations, and DNA sequence accession numbers from repositories like GenBank, European Nucleotide Archive, and DNA Data Bank of Japan. It cross-references specimen vouchers in herbaria such as New York Botanical Garden Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Herbarium, and culture collections including American Type Culture Collection and Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures Collections. Services include name registration, DOI minting comparable to practices at CrossRef, taxonomic thesauri integration as seen in Biodiversity Heritage Library projects, and APIs used by platforms like GBIF and Encyclopedia of Life. MycoBank’s dataset underpins checklists used by regional floras produced by organizations like Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and conservation assessments by bodies such as International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Submission and registration process

Authors submit new taxon names through MycoBank’s online interface, providing required data consistent with recommendations from the International Mycological Association and editorial policies of journals including Mycologia, Fungal Diversity, Studies in Mycology, and Persoonia. Registration assigns a unique identifier used in protologues, mirroring practices adopted by publishers like Springer Nature, Elsevier, and Pensoft Publishers. Validation interacts with accession systems at institutions such as Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and follows typification conventions encountered in literature by authors like Elias Magnus Fries, Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, and modern taxonomists such as David Hawksworth and Kerstin Voigt. Submission workflows accommodate linking to culture deposits at collections like Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute and specimen barcodes registered in systems like Barcode of Life Data Systems.

Nomenclature and taxonomic standards

MycoBank implements standards derived from decisions at International Botanical Congress sessions and recommendations by committees including the Committee for Fungi and Lichens and the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi. It enforces requirements for valid publication, typification, and effective publication consistent with rules codified by taxonomic authorities such as International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and complements inventories like Index Fungorum. MycoBank participates in harmonization efforts with projects like Global Names Architecture and aligns metadata schemas with standards from organizations such as TDWG. Its practices reflect taxonomic principles discussed by figures like Rolf Singer and modern protocols used in phylogenetic studies by groups at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Smithsonian Institution Department of Botany.

Technology and data architecture

The platform uses relational and semantic technologies to manage identifiers, metadata, and cross-references, integrating with ontologies and schemas promoted by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), Darwin Core, and linked-data initiatives related to Wikidata. MycoBank supports machine-readable outputs consumed by aggregators like Global Biodiversity Information Facility and research infrastructures such as European Open Science Cloud. Its architecture enables API access for software integration with tools developed by research groups at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, University of Oxford, and University of Helsinki. Persistent identifiers follow conventions promoted by agencies like DataCite and citation standards used by editorial bodies including the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Impact and usage in mycology and beyond

MycoBank’s identifiers and datasets are cited across taxonomic monographs, ecological syntheses, and applied studies in agriculture, medicine, and biotechnology involving institutions like World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and companies such as DSM-Firmenich. Its integration into biodiversity infrastructures supports conservation prioritization by organizations like IUCN and environmental assessments carried out by governments including European Commission Directorate-General for Environment and agencies such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The service influences curricula at universities including Harvard University, University of Cambridge, and University of Cape Town, and features in workflow tools used by publishers like Taylor & Francis and databases maintained by Nature Research.

Category:Mycology databases