The sequences we used were clustering monophyletically a-priori in the tree provided in the database used, and we chose them independently of the name. We now clarified this in the first section of M&M: “Thereby a group was considered monophyletic if it was monophyletic in the tree provided with the database, regardless of the taxonomy and the nomenclature of the organisms included in the clade (Supplemetary Figure 1), and only secondarily if there was a correspondence with known taxa.”
ISSN 2075-1729 www.mdpi.com/journal/life Peer-Review Record: Does a Barcoding Gap Exist in Prokaryotes?