DNA barcoding the Canadian Arctic flora: core plastid barcodes (rbcL + matK) for 490 vascular plant species.

ABSTRACT: Accurate identification of Arctic plant species is critical for understanding potential climate-induced changes in their diversity and distributions. To facilitate rapid identification we generated DNA barcodes for the core plastid barcode loci (rbcL and matK) for 490 vascular plant species, representing nearly half of the Canadian Arctic flora and 93% of the flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Sequence recovery was higher for rbcL than matK (93% and 81%), and rbcL was easier to recover than matK from herbarium specimens (92% and 77%). Distance-based and sequence-similarity analyses of combined rbcL + matK data discriminate 97% of genera, 56% of species, and 7% of infraspecific taxa. There is a significant negative correlation between the number of species sampled per genus and the p

SUBMITTER: Saarela JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3865322 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature