Minutes of the ICSP Executive Board Meetings, Term 2023-2026

Chair: E.R.B. MOORE University of Gothenburg Sweden Vice-Chair: C.M. MANAIA Universidad Católica Portuguesa Portugal Executive Secretary: A. OREN Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel Secretary for Subcommittees: S.L.W. ON Lincoln University New Zealand Treasurer: P. NIELSEN Novozymes, Copenhagen Denmark Members at Large: R. HAHNKE Leibniz Institute DSMZ Germany M. SAKAMOTO RIKEN BioResource Research Center Japan Members of the Judicial Committee Chair: D.R. ARAHAL University of Valencia Spain Vice-Chair: H. CHRISTENSEN University of Copenhagen Denmark Secretary: M. GÖKER Leibniz Institute DSMZ Germany International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes EB-ICSP Meeting 4th November 2025 – Minutes Minute 1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 10.00 CET. Minute 2. Record of attendance The following members of the Executive Board (EB) participated: E.R.B. Moore (Chair), A. Oren (Executive Secretary), P. Nielsen (Treasurer), M. Sakamoto (Member-at-Large), D.R. Arahal (Chair JC), H. Christensen (Vice-Chair JC), and M. Göker (Secretary JC). Apologies were received from C.M. Manaia (Vice-Chair), S.L.W. On (Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy), and R. Hahnke (Memberat-Large). Minute 3. Minutes of the 30st September 2025 meeting of the EB The draft minutes of the 30st September 2025 meeting were approved. A. Oren will distribute these minutes to the members of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), the Judicial Commission (JC), and chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy, and he will send a copy to E.R.B. Moore to be posted on the ICSP website. Minute 4. Matters Arising/Action points from previous meetings A. Oren has forwarded the minutes of the 28th August meeting of the Executive Board to all members of the ICSP, the Judicial Commission and the Chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. E.R.B. Moore has not yet posted the minutes of the 28th August meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. Ongoing. M. Göker has sent to the EB members draft guidelines on how ICSP reports and minutes submitted for publication in the IJSEM should be handled. C.M. Manaia has convened the Publications Committee to discuss the draft guidelines on how ICSP reports and minutes submitted for publication in the IJSEM should be handled by IJSEM editors and reviewers. This meeting was scheduled for 18th November. Minute 5. In memoriam Jean Paul Euzéby Jean-Paul Euzéby (born 1949) passed away in Toulouse, France on October 27th. He was Professor of Microbiology at the École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse. He served as the list editor of the IJSEM from 2003 until 2013. An editorial honouring his service to the IJSEM on the occasion of his retirement can be found at https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.052316-0). At the occasion, the ICSP appointed Page 2 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes him as a Life Member. Together with H.G. Trüper, he revised and extended the orthography appendix (Appendix 9) of the ICNP. He also contributed many chapters to Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, and in 2005 he received the Bergey’s Award of the Bergey’s Manual Trust for his contribution and service to the community of microbiologists. In 1997, he launched the internet site, List of Bacterial Names with Standing in Nomenclature (LBSN), now known as List of Prokaryotic Names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN), and he was its curator until his retirement in 2013. The taxa Euzebya Kurahashi et al. 2010, Euzebyaceae Kurahashi et al. 2010, Euzebyales Kurahashi et al. 2010, Euzebyella Lucena et al. 2010, and Salinirhabdus euzebyi Albuquerque et al. 2007 were named after him. M. Göker has already posted a short obituary on the LPSN website. A. Oren, M. Göker, and E.R.B. Moore will prepare an obituary to be published in the IJSEM, following approval of the document by Prof. Euzéby’s family. Minute 6. Appointment of M.P. Narsing Rao as a member of the IJSEM editorial board The EB discussed the proposal received from M.E. Trujillo to appoint M.P. Narsing Rao to the IJSEM editorial board, to replace S.N. Venter who will retire as editor. E.R.B. Moore will notify M.E. Trujillo that the EB has approved the appointment. Minute 7. Update on the ICSP membership A. Oren has contacted the current full members and co-opted members and the microbiology societies affiliated with the BAM division of IUMS to make arrangements for (re)appointment for the 2026-2029 term. The Australian Society has reappointed P. Hugenholtz and appointed J. Bowman and G. O’Hara as full members to serve until March 2029. The Spanish Society for Microbiology has reappointed A. Ventosa and appointed T. Lucena and R. Muñoz as full members to serve until March 2029. A. Oren has welcomed J. Bowman, G. O’Hara, T. Lucena and R. Muñoz to the ICSP. S. Ventura will continue serving on the JC for the 2026-2029 term, and can therefore not be reappointed as a full member of the ICSP. M. Stott has notified the New Zealand Microbiological Society that he does not wish to be reappointed for another term as a full member. M. del C. Montero Calasanz will continue serving on the JC for the 2026-2029 term, and will therefore not apply for co-option to the ICSP for another term. I. Kurtböke, co-opted member of the ICSP and chair of the World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC), had inquired whether she can be appointed as a full member as WFCC is a Federation under the IUMS. There was a consensus among the EB members that WFCC would need to be a member society of the BAM Division of IUMS to be allowed to appoint a full member, based on Article 2a of the ICSP Statutes. Minute 8. Status of publication of the new ICSP Statutes The July 2025 revision of the ICSP Statutes was published on 30th September (https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006918). M. Göker will update the FAQ section on the ICSP website with a link to the new version of the Statutes. A notice of publication of the new ICSP Statutes will be posted on the ICSP website. Minute 9. Update on guidelines for reviews of ICSP reports in IJSEM The Publications Committee is scheduled to meet on 18th November to discuss a proposal Page 3 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes received from M. Göker on how ICSP reports and minutes submitted for publication in the IJSEM should be handled. Minute 10. Suggestions on how to promote the ICSP on LinkedIn P. Nielsen and D.R. Arahal have posted a number of messages on LinkedIn, including information on the publication of the new ICSP Statutes and the update on the proposed minimal standards for the use of genome data for the taxonomy of prokaryotes. E.R.B. Moore proposed to post an obituary for J.P. Euzéby. Ongoing. Minute 11. Update from the JC There were no updates since the previous EB meeting. Minute 12. Update from the Editor-in-Chief of the ICNP On 31st October the ballot to vote on the 2025 Revision of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) was closed. P. Nielsen and M. Kostovski served as the tellers and the EB thanked them for the work. The outcome was as follows: Endorse Retai n Abstai n Vote separ ate Perce ntage (%) Have voted 5 1 42 1 2 6 91% Missing votes 5 9% Total votes 5 6 100% A summary of individual voting results is available as an Excel spreadsheet. A. Oren will send the outcome of the ballot to the ICSP membership and post it on the Slack channel. E.R.B. Moore will post the information on the ICSP website. The editorial board of the ICNP has made a few last technical corrections, and the 2025 Revision of the ICNP is now ready. A. Oren will submit the documents for publication in the IJSEM. Minute 13. Update from IJSEM and Publications Committee There were no further updates. Minute 14. Update from the Treasurer P. Nielsen reported that currently, he does not have access to the ICSP bank account, and he hopes that the problem will soon be solved. To properly deal with requests for travel refund from IJSEM editors, he would like to obtain guidelines whether the travel allowance is for a calendar year (January – December) or a financial year (August – July). He will further check with M.E. Trujillo. Page 4 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Minute 15. Approval of Annual Financial Report The annual financial report was approved unanimously. The EB thanked P. Nielsen for preparing the clear report. Minute 16. Update from Subcommittees on Taxonomy S.L.W. On notified the EB that there were no updates to report. Minute 17. Update from Working Groups and Ad Hoc Committees E.R.B. Moore reported that there were no updates from the working group on type strain accessibility. M. Göker reported on the publication of three papers based on the activities of the Ad Hoc Committee on Mitigating Name Changes of Prokaryotes were recently published: M. Göker et al. List of Recommended Names for bacteria of medical importance: report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Mitigating Changes in Prokaryotic Nomenclature. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2025;75:006943 (https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006943). J. Val-Calvo et al. Leveraging the subgenus category to address monophyletic genus oversplitting: illustration with recently proposed Mycobacteriales genera. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2025;75:006917 (https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006917). G. Margos et al. Proposing a subgenus Borreliella. Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases 2025;16:102536 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2025.102536). Closing matters A. Oren reported that he had accepted an invitation received from M. Head and J. Gravendyck to join a committee connected to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants, established during the International Botanical Congress in Madrid. Its mandate is to improve/clarify the rules governing the naming of ambiregnal organisms under this ICN. A. Oren attended the BISMiS 2025 conference held in Qingdao. In his lecture he presented the 2025 Revision of the ICNP, and notably its new Section 10. He reported on a number of presentations by colleagues who advocate for the SeqCode. He further met with ICSP members S. Dedysh, W.-J. Li, L. Maldonado, M. del C. Montero-Calasanz, I.C. Sutcliffe, A. Thamchaipenet, and S.V. Venter. Photographs of the event can be viewed at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://m.alltuu.com/album/1360010642__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Vs SqKGeoa64UDIJvXavtxOhSbZLvCs3AwB2MsIqlmIcidBPzNaV4bbuD2goJJ5smOu7dW2qA8_Bitc$ . The meeting was adjourned at 10.25 CET. E.R.B. Moore will send a survey to the EB members to decide on the most suitable dates for the next two EB meetings. Minutes prepared by A. Oren, 5th November 2025. Page 5 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Action points A. Oren, to forward the minutes of the 30th September meeting of the Executive Board to all members of the ICSP, the Judicial Commission and the chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. E.R.B. Moore, to post the minutes of the 28th August and 30th September meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. A. Oren, M. Göker, and E.R.B. Moore, to prepare an obituary for J.P. Euzéby for publication in the IJSEM. E.R.B. Moore, to notify M.E. Trujillo that the EB does not object to the appointment of M.P. Narsing Rao as a member of the editorial board of the IJSEM. M. Göker, to update the FAQ section on the ICSP website with a link to the July 2025 revision of the Statutes. A. Oren, to send the outcome of the ballot on the approval of the 2025 Revision of the ICNP to the ICSP membership and post it on the Slack channel. E.R.B. Moore, to post the outcome of the ballot on the approval of the 2025 Revision of the ICNP on the ICSP website. A. Oren, to submit the 2025 Revision of the ICNP for publication in the IJSEM. P. Nielsen, to check with M.E. Trujillo whether the travel allowance for IJSEM editors is calculated for a calendar year (January – December) or a financial year (August – July). E.R.B. Moore, to send a survey to the EB members to decide on the most suitable dates for the next two EB meetings.