This chapter provides an overview of the practical methodologies that can be used to identify and characterize the tandem repeats that are most frequently used as genetic markers in nematodes (including plant-parasitic and entomopathogenic nematodes), namely satellite DNA and microsatellites. The...

This chapter presents procedures on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, protocols for PCR, cloning and sequencing, and mitochondrial genome annotation and gene identification for the characterization of nematodes.

Microbial culture collections (CC) support taxonomy through the provision and preservation of microorganisms, underpinning the integrity of research. However, cultures are essentially worthless without associated data. Details of isolation (geographical location, date of collection, date of...

This book chapter discusses the history and development of chemotaxonomic methods, with examples of the application to different taxa, and with extensive reference to primary literature and reviews. The application of in silico methods utilizing information from the genome and future directions...

This book chapter argues for an open-access catalogue of taxonomic descriptions with prototypes; diagnostic tables; and links to culture collections, to genome and gene sequences, and to other phenotypic and ecological databases. Ideally, the open access taxonomy will be based solely on genome...

This book chapter describes the advantages and limitations of the ITS Region as a universal barcode for fungal identification. The ITS region offers several practical advantages as a universal fungal barcode region. The region encompasses segments that permit resolution at different taxonomic...

This book chapter attempts to summarize the major findings from genome-based taxonomic studies in the past two decades, and briefly describe the major genome-based approaches currently available for species identification and classification with special focus on the 'uncultivated majority' and...

This chapter aims to give an overview of the basic knowledge, understanding and perspectives in fungal genomics. It is likely that fungal genome sequencing will soon become simpler and cheaper, and allow most research laboratories to undertake in-house, whole genome sequencing on a regular basis,...

This book chapter is organized as follows: (i) the main approaches to the philosophy of taxonomic classification are recapitulated; (ii) the paradigm of polyphasic taxonomy is discussed in this context; (iii) the causes of conflict between previous classifications and genome-scale analyses are...

This book chapter argues that bacterial systematists of the mid-20th century fortuitously created a species-level systematics that actually fits an important universal theory of speciation by discussing taxonomy would allow us to infer the important characteristics of any unknown organism once we...