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From barcodes to genomes: extending the concept of DNA barcoding
Author(s) -
Coissac Eric,
Hollingsworth Peter M.,
Lavergne Sébastien,
Taberlet Pierre
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.13549
Subject(s) - barcode , dna barcoding , biology , genome , evolutionary biology , dna sequencing , computational biology , genomics , biodiversity , scalability , data science , dna , genetics , ecology , computer science , database , gene , operating system
DNA barcoding has had a major impact on biodiversity science. The elegant simplicity of establishing massive scale databases for a few barcode loci is continuing to change our understanding of species diversity patterns, and continues to enhance human abilities to distinguish among species. Capitalizing on the developments of next generation sequencing technologies and decreasing costs of genome sequencing, there is now the opportunity for the DNA barcoding concept to be extended to new kinds of genomic data. We illustrate the benefits and capacity to do this, and also note the constraints and barriers to overcome before it is truly scalable. We advocate a twin track approach: (i) continuation and acceleration of global efforts to build the DNA barcode reference library of life on earth using standard DNA barcodes and (ii) active development and application of extended DNA barcodes using genome skimming to augment the standard barcoding approach.