© 2005 Society of Systematic Biologists
The Promise of DNA Barcoding for Taxonomy
Edited by Vincent Savolainen
Department of Integrative Biology, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada; E-mail: phebert@uoguelph.ca (P.D.N.H.)
Received April 25, 2005; Revised June 9, 2005; Accepted July 12, 2005
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
DNA barcoding is a novel system designed to provide rapid, accurate, and automatable species identifications by using short, standardized gene regions as internal species tags. As a consequence, it will make the Linnaean taxonomic system more accessible, with benefits to ecologists, conservationists, and the diversity of agencies charged with the control of pests, invasive species, and food safety. More broadly, DNA barcoding allows a day to be envisioned when every curious mind, from professional biologists to schoolchildren, will have easy access to the names and biological attributes of any species on the planet. In addition to assigning specimens to known species, DNA barcoding will accelerate the pace of species discovery by allowing taxonomists to rapidly sort specimens and by highlighting divergent taxa that may represent new species. By augmenting their capabilities in these ways, DNA barcoding offers taxonomists the opportunity to greatly expand, and eventually complete, a global inventory of
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Questions |
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1. Given two billion US dollars (the amount a comprehensive program of DNA barcoding is estimated to cost [Whitfield, 2003]), how would you spend this money to benefit taxonomic and biodiversity research, and what would be the legacy of these data?
2. Globally, alpha taxonomic research (the discovery and description of new species) is in crisis. Is DNA barcoding an expedient solution to this problem or will it expedite its decline?
3. Overlapping character variation between and within species is well documented for many character systems. Why is this any more or less of a problem for DNA barcoding?
4. Many taxonomists already practice DNA barcoding informally when delimiting and discovering species. Is this wrong, and what data are sufficient to demonstrate that a series of specimens represents a new species with traditional or barcoding methods?
5. The proposed barcoding genes can fail to recover accurate species trees. Does this matter for DNA barcoding?
6. Some species are not mitochondrially monophyletic, sharing polymorphisms with unrelated taxa. How will this affect identifications using a barcoding approach?
7. Should the completion of a DNA barcoding program ever occur, would this mark the beginning or end of taxonomic and biodiversity research, and what will be the role of systematists in a world where most identifications are done by "barcode"?
8. Would the inevitable expansion of sequencing efforts that would come with a program of DNA barcoding be concomitant with a decline in the quality of taxonomic research?
9. Assuming the technical problems of DNA barcoding can be overcome, is it now, or will it ever be cost-effective relative to traditional methods to use DNA barcodes for bioinventory purposes?
10. Hypothesis-driven research is the foundation upon which most research agencies assign funding priorities, yet taxonomy is discovery driven. How would your approach to taxonomy convince these agencies of the merits of taxonomic studies?
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