A Special-purpose Committee on DNA Sequences as Types was established at the XIX International Botanical Congress (IBC) in Shenzhen, China in 2017, with a mandate to report to the XX IBC with recommendations on a preferred course of action with respect to DNA sequences as potential types under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. This report provides a synthesis of the deliberations from the Special-purpose Committee on this issue. We discuss two potential options for deal- ing with the problem that many species, especially of microfungi and microalgae, can be discovered and delimited using eDNA se- quencing but cannot currently be formally named due to the requirement in the Code that either a specimen or illustration be nominated as holotype. One option is to expand the definition of “type” to include DNA sequences, while a second option would allow some taxa to be named without types, the application of their names instead being determined using a DNA sequence. This report should be read in concert with two formal proposals for potential amendments to effect these options, published in this issue of Taxon.