International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and related organisms Minutes of the closed meeting by videoconference, 14 and 21 February 2024

CLOSED MEETING BY VIDEOCONFERENCE, 14 FEBRUARY 2024 MINUTE 1. CALL TO ORDER The annual Subcommittee meeting by videoconference was called to order by Charles Franz at 14:00 UTC on 14 February 2024. MINUTE 2. RECORD OF ATTENDANCE Present (12): J. Björkroth, E. Brockman, A. Endo, G.E. Felis, C. M.A.P. Franz, W.H. Holzapfel, P. Lawson, P. Mattarelli, M. Modesto, P. O’Toole, B. Pot, E. Salvetti, P. Vandamme, K. Watanabe. MINUTE 3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA The proposed agenda was approved. MINUTE 4. SUBCOMMITTEE PUBLICATIONS The minutes of our previous meeting (2020) have been published [1]. MINUTE 5. MEMBERSHIPS Christine Bonaparte and Leon Dicks expressed their intention to resign from the Subcommittee. Monica Modesto, Paul O’Toole, and Peter Vandamme were invited to be new members of the Subcommittee. MINUTE 6. PRESENTATIONS BY MONICA MODESTO, PAUL O’TOOLE, and PETER VANDAMME. Presentations of contri butions to taxonomical research by Monica Modesto, Paul O’Toole, and Peter Vandamme were held. Monica Modesto presented ‘The genus of Bifidobacterium: an incredible journey unveiling novel species’; Paul O’Toole ‘Comparison of functional genomics of lactobacilli’; Peter Vandamme ‘On the trail of novel bacteria’. A brief discussion occurred, and the subcommittee underlined the high taxonomic value of the presentations. All candidates were unanimously accepted as new members. MINUTE 7. NEW SPECIES SINCE THE LAST MEETING. The Subcommittee reviewed the list of newly proposed species and genera and noted that the proposed names should better reflect the characteristics of the taxa. This recommendation applies to all species except for the two subspecies Lactobacillus futsaii subsp. chongqingensis and Lactobacillus futsaii subsp. futsaii. As suggested by K. Watanabe, analysis based on ANI and digital DDH shows that the values for these two subspecies fall below the accepted species-level thresholds, indicating that they may in fact represent two distinct species. The list of new species and genera validly published included in the scope of the Subcommittee are listed in Table 1. An additional list of taxa of Candidatus that were effectively published but not validly published is shown in Table 2. MINUTE 10. ADJOURNMENT The closed meeting was adjourned at 14.00 on 21 February 2024