What's in a Name?
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VolNATURE 464|8|Vol April 464 2010|8 April 2010 NEWS VOLCANIC LAKE TEEMS WITH LIFE Flamingos and microbes thrive in hostile waters. go.nature.com/kikEKu M. EUGENIA FARÍAS EUGENIA M. What’s in a name? Fly world is abuzz Proposed reorganization of Drosophila fruitfly genus might throw out its most celebrated member. The star subject of genetic research — the designate D. melanogaster as the Drosophila that would occur if the genus were split. Dro- Drosophila melanogaster fruitfly — may lose type species — the accepted standard of the sophila melanogaster fits within a subgenus its name. genus (see Nature 457, 368; 2009). Kim van called Sophophora, which includes some 350 This is an anticipated repercussion of a der Linde, an ecologist at Florida State Univer- members. Splitting this group off to form a decision last week by the London-based Inter- sity in Tallahassee, wanted to ensure that the new genus would require fewer renamings national Commission on Zoological Nomen- name D. melanogaster would not than would be needed if D. mel- V. NI clature. It had spent more than two years change if the genus were divided, anogaster became the type spe- U debating a petition that would have protected as she and other scientists advo- cies for Drosophila. In that case, the hallowed name while opening the way to a cate. The genus is extremely roughly 1,100 species would be NDIANA I major reorganization of the Drosophila genus, large, and genetic data suggest pushed off into new genera. which includes at least 1,450 species. that some of its member species “It was very difficult for the The commission, which oversees the naming are more closely related to flies commissioners,” says Ellinor of all species, rejected the petition, setting the outside the genus than they are Drosophila melanogaster Michel, the commission’s execu- stage for a likely renaming of D. melanogaster to other Drosophila species. faces genus reassignment. tive secretary. “It was a question and hundreds of related species. Among biolo- In the end, the commission of celebrity, as everyone knows gists who study various fruitfly species to link voted 23 to 4 to reject van der Linde’s petition. D. melanogaster.” genes to traits, the 1 April ruling was no joke. The designated type species will continue to If a researcher were to use current data to “Oh my God,” says Therese Markow, a genet- be Drosophila funebris, described in 1787 by publish a revision of the Drosophila genus, icist at the University of California, San Diego, Johann Fabricius. But the proposal forced the D. melanogaster would probably become Sopho- who was reached in the Sonoran Desert, where taxonomic world to face the possibility that the phora melanogaster. Van der Linde says that if she was collecting fruitflies. Markow, who is genus in its present form may be untenable. she and her co-authors from the petition can director of the university’s Drosophila Spe- In their written opinions, commission mem- agree, they may present the case for the change. cies Stock Center, added that extensive name bers gave several reasons for voting against “Something needs to happen,” she says. changes could “wreak havoc” in the Drosophila the new proposal. Many called it premature But even if the celebrity fly is renamed, literature and databases. because the science about the organization of Michel noted, it may still be referred to by its The naming debate began when a US sci- the Drosophila genus remains unsettled. Oth- original name. ■ entist filed a petition with the commission to ers sought to limit the naming disruptions Rex Dalton Animals thrive without oxygen at sea bottom Living exclusively oxygen-free named, belong to a phylum of that helps these loriciferans to survive in O AR was thought to be a lifestyle tiny bottom-dwellers called their environment. Instead of mitochondria, OV open only to viruses and Loricifera. Measuring less which rely on oxygen, the creatures have AN single-celled microorganisms. than 1 millimetre long, they organelles that resemble hydrogenosomes, D R. A group of Italian and Danish live at a depth of more than which some single-celled organisms use researchers has now found 3,000 metres in the anoxic to produce energy-storing molecules three species of multicellular sediments of the Atalante anaerobically. animal, or metazoan, that basin, a place so little explored Angelika Brandt, a deep-sea biologist apparently spend their entire that Danovaro likens his at Germany’s Zoological Museum in lives in oxygen-starved waters team’s sampling to “going to Hamburg, says that the work by Danovaro’s in a basin at the bottom of the the Moon to collect rocks”. group is “highly significant”. The discovery Mediterranean Sea. Researchers have previously of metazoans living without mitochondria The discovery “opens Some loriciferans live in found multicellular and oxygen, she says, suggests that animals a whole new realm to anoxic sediments. animals living in anoxic can occupy niches that once seemed too metazoans that we thought environments, but Danovaro extreme. ■ was off limits”, says Lisa Levin, a biological says that it was never clear whether those Janet Fang oceanographer at Scripps Institution of animals were permanent residents. The new Correction Oceanography in La Jolla, California. loriciferans, which he and his team reported The News Feature ‘The human race’ (Nature Roberto Danovaro from the Polytechnic this week (R. Danovaro et al. BMC Biol. 464, 668–669; 2010) misspelt the name of the University of Marche in Ancona, Italy, and doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-30; 2010), seem architect of whole-genome shotgun sequencing. his colleagues pulled up the animals during to “reproduce and live all their life in anoxic It should be Gene Myers. This error has been three research cruises off the south coast of conditions”, he says. corrected online in the HTML and PDF versions Greece. The species, which have not yet been The researchers identified an adaptation of this story. 825 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.