Actinomycete Nomenclature system in RLABB

Abstract: Sodium azide is being used to generate mutants of Actinomycetes isolated in Research Laboratory for Biotechnology and Biochemistry (RLABB) from soil samples from Khumbu, Mount Everest Base camp. With the International Foundation for Science (IFS)-Grant 2008, this work was done to expand the limited number of actinomycete mutants generated by sodium azide exposure. Feeling the need to develop the nomenclature system in order to designate and discriminate the vast array of the organisms’ database, we developed a “Guide for nomenclature of wild types and corresponding mutants of actinomycetes generated by exposure of sodium azide in RLABB” as follows:
1. Section 1: The wild strains are started with the capital initial of the region of isolation. E.g., S from Sagarmatha National Park, J from Jorsela, K from Kalapatthar and N from Namche.
2. Section 2: The capital letter for the wild type strain is followed by serial number which explains the different sites from the same region. E.g., S16 and S18 were isolated from two different sites of Sagarmatha National Park.
3. Section 3: The serial number may be tagged with decimal serial numbers to distinguish the soil samples from the same site from the same region. E.g., K70.1, K70.3 and K70.5 were the three isolates from corresponding three soil samples from the site (70th) of Kalapatthar region.
4. Section 4: The isolates from a soil samples are distinguished with the small letter tag after the serial numeral(s) described in sections 2 and 3 above. E.g., J1b and J1d are two isolates from the site (1st) from Jorsela region.
5. Section 5: Initials of the corresponding mutants are carried from the complete name of the respective wild types and followed by decimal and the concentration of sodium azide from which they were picked up. E.g., S18a.10 and S18a.20 were two mutants generated from S18a isolates exposed to 10ppm and 20ppm of sodium azide.
6. Section 6: Different mutants from the same concentration of sodium azide for the same wild type strain follows a decimal and i, ii, iii etc. E.g., S18a.10.i and S18a.10.ii were two mutant isolates from the S18a exposed to 10ppm of sodium azide.