Table 1 Possible alternative types for sequence-based nomenclature and their advantages and disadvantages. Desirability refers to a purely scientific viewpoint, without considering the actual necessity; risk refers to the possibility of undesired outcomes, such as artifactual taxa or newly described synonyms; feasibility refers to the efforts required to designate and store a type; and effectivity refers to the proportion of effort versus gain in closing the gap of undescribed fungal diversity.
Specimen | Culture | DNA extract | Environmental sample | FISH | Illustration | Sequence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phenotype | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
Comparability | yes | yes | no | no | no | limited | limited |
New characters | yes | yes | limited | limited | no | no | no |
Quality control | yes | yes | limited | limited | yes | no | no |
Artifactual taxa | rare | impossible | possible | possible | impossible | possible | possible |
Technical requirements | low | high | medium | medium | high | low | low |
Storage requirements | medium | high | medium | high | medium | low | low |
Long-term preservation | limited | limited | limited | limited | limited | yes | yes |
Capture of diversity | low | low | medium | medium | medium | high | high |
Code compliancy | yes | yes | limited | limited | yes | limited | no |
Changes to the Code | none | none | “mixtotype”? | “mixtotype”? | none | clarify | “sequence type” |
Overall desirability | high | very high | medium | low | high | very low | very low |
Overall risk | low | very low | medium | high | very low | high | high |
Overall feasibility | very low | low | high | medium | medium | very high | very high |
Overall effectivity | very low | low | medium | high | medium | very high | very high |