What is DNA barcoding?
DNA barcodes are DNA sequences that provide the capability to identify species but contain limited or no variability within species.
DNA barcodes should be readily amplified from 'universal' primers to allow screening of any taxon of interest.
Technically DNA barcoding regions should be short enough to sequence in one reaction, be readily aligned and usually be able to be recovered from herbarium samples and other partially degraded DNA samples.
DNA regions good for barcoding
The Kew, Plant DNA Barcoding initiative outlines the utility of various DNA regions. For reasons of practicality chloroplast DNA is being used in most plant barcoding programs.
Resources
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Establishing a standard DNA barcode for land plants)
- Consortium for the Barcode of Life
Some papers of interest
- W. John Kress et al. (2005) Use of DNA barcodes to identify flowering plants. PNAS 102: 8369-8374
- M. L. Blaxter (2004) The promise of a DNA taxonomy. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. 359:669-679
- Pierre Taberlet et al. (2007) Power and limitations of the chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron for plant DNA barcoding. Nucleic Acids Research 35(3): e14; doi:10.1093/nar/gkl938
- Hollingsworth PM, Graham SW, Little DP (2011) Choosing and Using a Plant DNA Barcode PLoS ONE 6(5):e19254
For more details. Contact the project leader e: michelle[dot]waycott[at]gmail[dot]com
