Data Without Borders ICE 2016: Difference between revisions

Data Without Borders ICE 2016 (view source)

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 | The usefulness of DNA-barcoding databases for routine taxonomic research and identification of Lepidoptera
+::Due to our extensive knowledge about the taxonomy of Lepidoptera and the ease with which the appropriate tissue samples can be obtained from dry specimens in collections, butterflies and moths have served as a model group for developing DNA barcoding methodology. DNA barcoding has now become a routine tool in taxonomy, and many species of Lepidoptera have been barcoded at least once. For example, the Barcode of Life initiative has produced almost a million such sequences for 84,000 species of Lepidoptera (half of the world’s described fauna). However, most species are represented by a single or few barcodes. In my presentation, using my own taxonomic work as well as several examples from the work of my colleagues at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, I would like to argue that many more resources need to be invested into mitochondrial DNA barcoding, generating not only barcodes for species and subspecies that have not been barcoded to date, but also representing as many populations and individuals as possible.  While genomic methods are increasingly popular for the purposes of phylogenetic reconstruction and evolutionary research, and currently dominate grant proposals, I argue that it is equally important to direct more resources towards DNA barcoding, which has proved to be the best taxonomic tool developed in the last 100 years for resolving current taxonomic conundrums, for revealing cryptic species and for describing biodiversity.
 | '''Andrei Sourakov''' (asourakov@flmnh.ufl.edu), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
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