Editorial Sex Transm Infect: first published as 10.1136/sextrans-2014-051937 on 16 December 2014. Downloaded from colonise humans and animals, but only two Mind your binomials: a guide to are human pathogens (N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis).7 Sometimes, the species microbial nomenclature and spelling can be divided into subspecies. For Sexually Transmitted Infections example, we use the binomial Treponema in pallidum to refer to the sexually transmit- ted infection syphilis, but there are three 1 2 3,4 5 Nicola Low, Kelly Stroud, David A Lewis, Jackie A Cassell subspecies: T. pallidum subspecies pallidum causes syphilis; T. p all id um subsp. pertenue causes yaws; and T. p all id um subsp. Here is a quick quiz: nomenclature and abbreviations for bac- endemicum causes bejel.8 Chlamydia is a teria, protozoa and viruses and the infec- bacterium with a contentious taxonomic Question 1: In which published articles is/are the tions they cause. name of the organism or condition spelled correctly? history, having been called Miyaganawella, A. N. gonorrheae1 Bedsonia and Rakeia in the past,9 and B. Trichamoniasis2 WHAT IS BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE? having initially been thought to be a virus10 3 C. Chlamydiae trachomatis All living organisms have two names or a protozoan.11 D. Neisseria gonorrhoea4 E. Neisseria gonorrhea5 (binomial) to describe them: a genus Answer: At the end of this piece. (generic name for a group of closely related VIRUSES fi Question 2: Do you like it when someone misspells organisms) and a species (speci c name that Virologists have adopted different criteria your name? distinguishes individual types within for nomenclature, partly because viruses 6 Answer: We don’t like it and you probably don’t the group). Knapp et al nicely summarised are not living organisms.12 Viruses often either. the origins of the system, which were have names in English, for example hepa- invented by Carl Linnæus, a Swedish titis B virus, but they can also have Latin There are several reasons for expecting botanist in the 18th century. Linnæus names, for example herpes simplex virus authors to spell scientific terms correctly. suggested two-word ‘nomina trivialia’ to (herpes comes from the Greek herpein, to First, the conventions for scientificnames make it easier to remember the names of creep). The generic names of viruses such are meant to allow scientists to communi- organisms, which were originally descrip- as HIV are not written in italics; italics are cate precisely and accurately with each tive phrases (‘nomina specifica’) that only used for the virus species name or its other. Incorrect spelling or terminology of changed as knowledge accrued. The rules family. They are not capitalised unless the the names of microorganisms can cause for nomenclature have changed over time name is a proper noun, for example Ebola confusion and perpetuate mistakes. Second, and differences between zoology, botany virus. an incorrectly spelled name in the title34of and microbiology have emerged.6 an article means that scientists searching for WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT TO GET fi your article might not nd it. Third, and BACTERIA THENAMERIGHT? maybe unfairly, poor spelling gives editors Bacteria have names in Latin. All bacteria Authors probably expect copy editors to and reviewers the impression that you do are named in five taxonomic categories: correct their spelling and editors expect not know or do not care about the subject class, order, family, genus and species. The authors to proofread carefully. As our pub- of your research. genus and species form the binomial that lished examples show, failures at both stages A quick look at the mistakes made when we use to identify the organism (table 1). result in errors in the printed version. But http://sti.bmj.com/ spelling Neisseria gonorrhoeae and The name of the genus can come from the getting to print is the end of a long process Chlamydia trachomatis suggests that people person who discovered it, for example, and editors and reviewers will read a manu- are confused about when to use the Latin Neisseria,fromAlbertNeisser,oracharac- script before it is accepted. Authors are name for the pathogen or its common teristic of the organism, for example, responsible for checking their spelling and descriptive name and about differences Chlamydia, which is Greek for a cloak and terminology before submitting a manu- between UK and US English spelling. It describes its intracellular nature. The genus script. First impressions are important so it on September 29, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. ’ didn t take long to put together the errors might have more than one distinct species. makes sense to get the spelling and format- listed above, so we conclude that there is a For example, many species of Neisseria ting right before submission. real problem. Now is a good time to remind ourselves of the conventions for using and fi writing scienti c names and to let authors Table 1 Nomenclature for bacteria and general principles for formatting know of our new guidance for Formatting Example Genus Italicised, uppercase first letter Neisseria 1 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University Species Italicised, lowercase gonorrhoeae of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; 2BMJ Publishing Group, London, UK; 3Western Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Condition Not italicised, lowercase except when used gonorrhoea (UK), gonorrhea (US) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; 4Centre for at start of a sentence Infectious Diseases and Microbiology & Marie Bashir Abbreviation May be used when several species from the “The sample contained Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, of genus same genus are being named or the same N. meningitidis and N. lactamica” Western Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, species is mentioned repeatedly. Write the Australia; 5Department of Primary Care, Brighton and genus in full the first time, then abbreviate Sussex Medical School, East Sussex, UK with a full stop after the initial “ ” Correspondence to Professor Nicola Low, Institute of Unknown If the precise species is not known, use sp. The condition was caused by a Neisseria sp. “ Social and Preventive Medicine, Finkenhubelweg 11, species If there is more than one species, use spp. They identified several Neisseria spp. in the ” University of Bern, Bern, CH-3012, Switzerland; sample [email protected] 154 Low N, et al. Sex Transm Infect May 2015 Vol 91 No 3 Editorial Sex Transm Infect: first published as 10.1136/sextrans-2014-051937 on 16 December 2014. Downloaded from Table 2 Organism names and abbreviations for bacteria and protozoa Abbreviation of Abbreviation of Binomial name Genus organism name Condition* infection name† Chlamydia trachomatis Chlamydia C. trachomatis Chlamydia CT Mycoplasma genitalium Mycoplasma M. genitalium M. genitalium infection‡ MG Neisseria gonorrhoeae§ Neisseria N. gonorrhoeae Gonorrhoea§ NG¶ Treponema pallidum Treponema T. pallidum Syphilis TP Trichomonas vaginalis Trichomonas T. vaginalis Trichomoniasis TV *Only capitalise first letter if used at the start of a sentence, otherwise lowercase. †In general, we discourage the use of abbreviated names for conditions. These abbreviations can be used in tables and figures where space is limited. They still need to be spelled out at the first use. ‡There is no agreed name at present. §Please note the ‘e’ at the end of the Latin species name. There is no ‘e’ at the end of the name of the condition. We use UK English spelling, which has an extra ‘o’ in the name of the condition. ¶GC cannot be used to abbreviate Neisseria gonorrhoeae. GC is used mainly in the UK as an abbreviation of gonococcus, the shape of the bacterium (see table 3). Table 3 Adjectives for describing shapes of bacteria Shape singular/plural Description Example Plural Adjective Coccus/cocci Spherical bacteria; can be in pairs (diplococci) Gonococcus Gonococci Gonococcal or chains (streptococci) Pneumococcus Pneumococci Pneumococcal Bacillus/bacilli* Rod-shaped bacteria Bacillary Spiral Spiral-shaped bacteria Spirochaete† Spirochaetes Spirochaetal *Not to be confused with Bacillus the genus. †Most common example for sexually transmitted pathogens, that is, Treponema pallidum. Alternative forms are vibrio and spirillum. ADVICE FOR AUTHORS Provenance and peer review Commissioned; in genitourinary medicine clinics in England. Sex – Editors and production staff at Sexually internally peer reviewed. Transm Infect 2014;90:104 11. 5 Huppert JS, Taylor RG, St Cyr S, et al. Point-of-care Transmitted Infections have come up with testing improves accuracy of STI care in an some guidance for authors (tables 1, 2 emergency department. Sex Transm Infect and 3). This combines published conven- 2013;89:489–4. tions for scientific nomenclature, sum- 6 Knapp S, Lamas G, Lughadha EN, et al. Stability or marised by the journal Emerging To cite Low N, Stroud K, Lewis DA, et al. Sex Transm stasis in the names of organisms: the evolving codes 13 Infect 2015;91:154–155. of nomenclature. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Infectious Diseases, and the opinions of 2004;359:611–22. the editors. We try to cover spelling and Received 6 November 2014 7 Bennett JS, Jolley KA, Earle SG, et al. A genomic abbreviations of both organisms and con- Accepted 9 November 2014 approach to bacterial taxonomy: an examination and http://sti.bmj.com/ Published Online First 16 December 2014 fi ditions for the most common sexually proposed reclassi cation of species within the genus – Neisseria. Microbiol 2012;158(Pt 6):1570–80. transmitted infections (table 2). Sex Transm Infect 2015;91:154 155. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2014-051937 8 Lukehart SA. Biology of treponemes. Chapter 36. We have posted the guidance in our In: Holmes KK, Sparling PF, Stamm WE, Piot P, Instructions for Authors on the submis- Wasserheit JN, Corey L, Cohen MS, Watts DH, eds. sion website (http://sti.bmj.com/site/about/ REFERENCES Sexually Transmitted Diseases. 4th edn.