Step right up and get the barcode stabled to your head...
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Molecular systematics: Counting angels with DNA
09 January 2003
Nature 421, 122 - 124 (2003); doi:10.1038/421122a
nature.com (this article requires subscription)
MARK BLAXTER
Mark Blaxter is at the Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
e-mail: email: mark.blaxter@ed.ac.uk
It is impossible to describe biological diversity with traditional approaches. Molecular methods are the way forward — especially, perhaps, in the form of DNA barcodes.
For 200 years taxonomists have recognized two living species of elephant, the African and the Indian. According to molecular evidence, however, this understanding is wrong1, 2. Although the details are still under discussion, two or maybe three groups of 'African' elephant are as distinct from each other as either is from the Indian, and so may constitute distinct taxonomic groups — a finding with implications for conservation. This kind of discovery, using molecular markers, epitomizes a sea change occurring in taxonomy. It underlies a proposal, published by Hebert et al.3 in Proceedings of the Royal Society, for a DNA-based barcoding system for all animal species. This is not a new idea for some taxonomic groups. But Hebert et al. now formally suggest that a molecular barcode inventory should be made of known animal taxa, and that this database should become the basis of biodiversity assessment and taxon identification.
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