Taxacom: Big changes / increases in virus taxonomy - who knew?

[Tony Rees]

Following on from the above, it appears that the new Virus ranks of realm
and kingdom (also subrealm and subkingdom) were first established publicly
in 2019, see

Siddell, Stuart G., et al. "Additional changes to taxonomy ratified in a
special vote by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (October
2018)." *Archives of virology* 164.3 (2019): 943-946, available at
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1007%2Fs00705-021-05156-1&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C10b8119184384252771508dd37410381%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638727474550644110%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0sMsohtYpdVAAi21cYEi2edU5dT1ly3C%2FDMW5Ypvriw%3D&reserved=0. This article
notes:

"Of note, the ICTV has approved, by an absolute majority, the creation of
additional taxonomical ranks above those recognized previously. A total of
15 ranks (realm, subrealm, kingdom, subkingdom, phylum, subphylum, class,
subclass, order, suborder, family, subfamily, genus, subgenus, and species)
are now available to encompass the entire spectrum of virus diversity."

The changes were further publicized in a 2020 article in Nature
Microbiology,by the ICTV Executive Committee, namely "The new scope of
virus taxonomy: partitioning the virosphere into 15 hierarchical
ranks." *Nature
Microbiology* 5, no. 5 (2020): 668-674.", available at
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41564-020-0709-x.pdf&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C10b8119184384252771508dd37410381%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638727474550672493%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Sx%2FSWdmvYkdyzvbvgPt6as928dFkoUqrUwC2Gyfoh5Q%3D&reserved=0.

I am guessing (but have not pursued) that earlier discussion documents also
exist that presage such changes plus the reasons for introducing them.

Regarding the "explosion" of new genus names, I would hazard a guess that
genomics (or perhaps metagenomics)  is playing a part, but since that is an
area about which I know even less than I do regarding virus taxonomy, it is
probably best that I stop there!

Regards - Tony