Barcoding Life to Conserve Biological Diversity: Beyond the Taxonomic Imperative: e1000417

[...]human activities are causing the extinction of species hundreds of times faster than the natural rate of extinction found in the fossil record. The technique is based on a simple but powerful observation: that sequence diversity, in short, standardized gene regions (i.e., DNA barcodes), can ser...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS biology 2010-07, Vol.8 (7)
Main Authors: Vernooy, Ronnie, Haribabu, Ejnavarzala, Muller, Manuel Ruiz, Vogel, Joseph Henry, Hebert, Paul DN, Schindel, David E, Shimura, Junko, Singer, Gregory AC
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Community
Competent authority
Conservation
Conventions
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Developing countries
Development banks
DNA
Earth
Endangered & extinct species
International
LDCs
Society
Taxonomy
Technological change
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Summary:[...]human activities are causing the extinction of species hundreds of times faster than the natural rate of extinction found in the fossil record. The technique is based on a simple but powerful observation: that sequence diversity, in short, standardized gene regions (i.e., DNA barcodes), can serve as a tool to identify known species and potentially discover new ones. [...]DNA barcoding allows researchers to develop a system for species identification based on digital characters, eventually allowing for automated identifications, thereby promising to improve the capacity to identify, monitor, and manage biodiversity, with profound societal and economic benefits. The project will bring together 26 countries to broaden and strengthen DNA barcoding research with potential social, cultural, and economic, implications--direct and indirect--with a special focus on developing countries. Because the true stewards of biological diversity are at the local level, it is imperative that they be included in the process.
ISSN:1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000417