Authors response to the pre-print 'On the “subclades” of Fusobacterium animalis and colorectal cancer’

In March 2024, our group, with several co-authors, published the article Zepeda-Rivera et al., 2024, entitled “A distinct Fusobacterium nucleatum clade dominates the colorectal cancer niche”. Shortly after the publication of this work, we became aware of a pre-print submission entitled ‘On the “subclades” of Fusobacterium animalis and colorectal cancer’, which was publicly posted to the OSF preprint server and linked to our manuscript via google scholar and dimension citations. This piece is unusual in that it almost immediately misquotes our study, then continuously misinterprets, and mischaracterizes our papers findings, and mistakenly suggests that we violated a set of taxonomic rules and principles, which are not elaborated upon within the piece itself. It further puts forward an alternative and currently inconclusive naming scheme for a Fusobacterium lineage we referred to as Fna C1 in Zepeda-Rivera et al., 2024, and seeks to reprimand our group for not adhering this proposed naming scheme. The claims made in the pre-print piece are scientifically unsubstantiated, based on the conflation of taxonomy with nomenclature, and have misinterpreted the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes and the purpose of validly published bacterial naming schemes. Due to the widespread errors in the preprint, a public rebuttal from our group is warranted.