Our love-hate relationship with DNA barcodes, the Y2K problem, and the search for next generation barcodes.

ABSTRACT: DNA barcodes are very useful for species identification especially when identification by traditional morphological characters is difficult. However, the short mitochondrial and chloroplast barcodes currently in use often fail to distinguish between closely related species, are prone to lateral transfer, and provide inadequate phylogenetic resolution, particularly at deeper nodes. The deficiencies of short barcode identifiers are similar to the deficiencies of the short year identifiers that caused the Y2K problem in computer science. The resolution of the Y2K problem was to increase the size of the year identifiers. The performance of conventional mitochondrial COI barcodes for phylogenetics was compared with the performance of complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear ribosomal R

SUBMITTER: Marcus JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6690253 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature