Genome-based Taxonomy for Bacteria: A Recent Advance.

Prokaryotic taxonomic assignments are shifting to genome-based algorithms. A recent study (Parks et al., 2020) has advanced genome-based taxonomy by constructing reference databases, computing average nucleotide identity and assigning tentative placeholder species names. However, prokaryotic taxonomy should be carefully curated and updated in a timely fashion; this requires coordinated efforts of prokaryotic taxonomists, genomicists, and database curators.