As previously announced, NCBI continues to make improvements to our Taxonomy resource. There have been recent updates to the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) and proposals by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). As a result, NCBI Taxonomy has discontinued the use of rank “superkingdom” to classify organisms into Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota, and Viruses.
What’s changing?
New rank: Domain
- “Domain” replaces “superkingdom” for Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota
- “No rank” replaces “superkingdom” for Viruses
New rank for viruses: Realm
Six viral groups are designated with the new rank “realm,” the equivalent of “domain.” The six realms are:
- Adnaviria (filamentous archaeal A-DNA viruses)
- Duplodnaviria (double-stranded DNA viruses)
- Monodnaviria (single-stranded DNA viruses)
- Riboviria (RNA viruses and retroviruses)
- Ribozyviria (Deltavirus-related satellite nucleic acids)
- Varidnaviria (Adenovirus and Poxvirus-related DNA viruses)
The above are rank name changes to existing names. They do not affect the classification of Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota, or Viruses.
Note: updates will be live in NCBI Taxonomy in early March 2025.
Questions?
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