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Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) is a promising biotemplate for the mineralization of metal–organic nanorods. Biomineralization of palladium occurs without an external reducing agent; however, the reduction of gold on wild-type BSMV requires a reducing agent. Recently, histidine has been adopted as a capping and reducing agent for the mineralization of gold nanoparticles. BSMV virus-like particles (BSMV-VLPs) tagged with histidine were investigated for direct gold deposition. However, gold nanoparticles were not formed during the mineralization process. Therefore, the aim of this research was to decorate gold nanoparticles onto palladium-coated BSMV (Pd-BSMV). The gold decoration was achieved through the addition of free histidine. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to verify the formation of metallic gold, and a kinetic study of the gold decoration process and the pH effect on the morphologies of gold particles was performed. The development of gold-decorated Pd-BSMV will be crucial for therapeutic applications, such as drug delivery, gene therapy, and photothermal therapy. 

Establishing a solid taxonomic framework is crucial for enabling discovery and documentation efforts. This ensures effective communication between scientists as well as reproducibility of results between laboratories, and facilitates the exchange and preservation of biological material. Such framework can only be achieved by establishing clear criteria for taxa characterization and rank assignment. Within the anaerobic fungi (phylum Neocallimastigomycota), the need for such criteria is especially vital. Difficulties associated with their isolation, maintenance and long-term storage often result in limited availability and loss of previously described taxa. To this end, we provide here a list of morphological, microscopic, phylogenetic and phenotypic criteria for assessment and documentation when characterizing newly obtained Neocallimastigomycota isolates. We also recommend a polyphasic rank-assignment scheme for novel genus-, species- and strain-level designations for newly obtained Neocallimastigomycota isolates.