Barcoding Life

[Jack]

The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) is an international initiative devoted to developing DNA barcoding as a global standard for the identification of biological species. DNA barcoding is a new technique that uses a short DNA sequence from a standardized and agreed-upon position in the genome as a molecular diagnostic for species-level identification. DNA barcode sequences are very short relative to the entire genome and they can be obtained reasonably quickly and cheaply. The "Folmer region" at the 5' end of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial region (COI) is emerging as the standard barcode region for almost all groups of higher animals. This region is 648 nucleotide base pairs long in most groups and is flanked by regions of conserved sequences, making it relatively easy to isolate and analyze. A growing number of studies have shown that COI sequence variability is very low (generally less than 1-2%) and that the COI sequences of even closely related species differ by several percent, making it possible to identify species with high confidence.

Consortium for the Barcode of Life

Barcoding Life: 10 Reasons (pdf)

In an article sent to Dave Farber's mailing list, Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, said, "...the implications of such a device are mindblowing. Imagine the impact on farming if you can accurately determine your pests instead of blasting your crops with broad-spectrum 'cides. The impact on medicine to cheaply identify the presence of pathogens in samples."

Interesting concept or pointless future-tech?