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  

Continue reading “New Ranks in NCBI Taxonomy: Domain & Realm” →

As previously announced, NCBI is continuing to improve our Taxonomy resource. The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) recently introduced changes to the code of nomenclature that governs naming of prokaryotes. Following these changes, we are updating the higher-level classification of prokaryotes with the introduction of rank ‘kingdom’ and other changes for this group. The changes will first appear both in our legacy and new NCBI Datasets taxonomy browsers, followed by data records. This update affects every prokaryotic record and may impact some pipelines and tools using lineage and/or name recognition.   Continue reading “NCBI Taxonomy Updates to Prokaryotes” →

As previously announced, NCBI is continually making improvements to our Taxonomy resource in response to new data and changes in biological nomenclature. We recently made classification changes to budding yeasts and allies (Saccharomycotina), which consists of more than 1,200 species and exhibits levels of genomic diversity similar to those of plants and animals. This update affects more than six million records. Check out our new Taxonomy browser in NCBI Datasets.  Continue reading “NCBI Taxonomy Updates to Yeasts” →

NCBI is continually making improvements to our Taxonomy resource in response to new data and changes in biological nomenclature and classification. In the coming months, we will update the higher-level classification of birds (Aves), budding yeasts (Saccharomycotina), prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea) and Viruses. This update will also change the formal ranks of several high-level taxonomic names including Eukaryota. Except for the new species names for Viruses, none of these changes will affect organism names at the species level or below.  

Here is a brief overview of changes to each group in the order we plan to make them. Stay tuned for upcoming posts, which will describe the changes for each category in more detail.  Continue reading “Upcoming Changes to NCBI Taxonomy Classifications” →