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BARCODING LIFE, HIGHLIGHTS 2011
BUILDING THE DNA BARCODE SYSTEM
FOR THE WORLD’S ANIMALS, PLANTS, AND FUNGI
Understanding life on Earth—what lives where, how life
interacts, and how life is changing—begins with identifying
species. DNA barcodes—short DNA sequences from a
uniform location on the genome—can be distinguishing
features for animal, plant, and fungal species. By building a
standardized identification system based on the simple,
universal A-C-G-T genetic code, DNA barcoding lifts
researching, monitoring, and appreciating Earth’s changing
biodiversity to a new level.
SUMMARY OUTLINE FOR HIGHLIGHTS 2011
I. COVER
II. INTRODUCTION
III. BUILDING THE LIBRARY
A. LINKING BARCODES TO SPECIMENS AND NAMES
B. ORGANIZING THE EFFORT
C. ORGANIZING AND LINKING TO E-BIOSPHERE
IV. UTILIZING THE LIBRARY
A. SOCIETAL APPLICATIONS
B. SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
V. RECOGNITION (SPONSORS & PARTNERS)
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INTRODUCTION
BEGIN WITH SOME TOP HIGHLIGHTS: 1M/100K records/species; iBOL funding renewed; CBOL
Adelaide conference; MOU w CBD
THEN PROVIDE SOME CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), free and
open to all, is an international collaboration of natural history
museums, herbaria, and other biological repositories
together with experts in taxonomy, genomics, and
bioinformatics. Inaugurated in 2004 with support from the
Alfred P. Sloan and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations,
CBOL works to establish and promote barcoding as a global
standard for identification of species. CBOL sponsors
Connect, an online social networking site for the barcoding
community with over 1000 members, and has organized
biannual international conferences and numerous workshops.
The International Barcode of Life (iBOL), the largest
biodiversity genomics initiative to date, aims by 2015 to
reach the target of 5 M barcoded specimens from 500K
species, a large fraction of the earth’s biodiversity. iBOL,
developed by over 100 scientists from over 20 countries, is
headquartered in Canada and was launched in 2010 with
support from Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics
Institute. iBOL participants are asked to commit resources—
financial support, human effort, and specimens—toward the
5M/500K goal.
CBOL and iBOL share the goals of building and utilizing the
DNA Barcode Library and are jointly sponsoring the
production and distribution of Highlights.
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BUILDING THE LIBRARYLINKING BARCODES TO SPECIMENS AND NAMES
Results so far
AUGUST 2011: 1.3M barcoded specimens representing 109K named species.
Results this year
Notable recent taxonomic groups/collections/specimens/ecosystems barcoded
Animals
Leafhoppers
Velvet Worms
Plants
Bryophytes
Fungi
Lichens
Museum collections
ANIC
USNM
BioBlitzes
S Africa
Moorea
Churchill
Type specimen barcode recovery—ANC insect
BUILDING THE LIBRARYORGANIZING THE EFFORT
Countries, Nodes, National Networks, Working Groups, Training
iBOL Nodes
National Networks – Mexico, Brazil, S Africa
Leading Labs Network
Training-highlight fellows, courses
Connect
BUILDING THE LIBRARYORGANIZING AND LINKING TO E-BIOSPHERE
Organizing barcode records
BOLD-what is BOLD (and how relates to GenBank)
new capabilities-BINS, virtual projects?
Mirrors-China, Australia
Connecting to e-Biosphere—GenBank, EOL, GBIF
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UTILIZING THE LIBRARYSOCIETAL APPLICATIONS
Regulatory/consumer
Monitoring Water Quality through freshwater invert ID (Sweeney)
Fish-FDA standards, Canadian Fish Market Survey, Irish fish market survey
Protecting endangered species (Amato)
Protecting crops and forests (DeWaard, TBI)
Environmental monitoring
CSIRO species chip (2011 news item)
Next-Gen sequencing for environmental monitoring( HADJIBABEI 2011)
Education
TeaBOL
Coastal Marine Biolabs
Urban Barcode Project
UTILIZING THE LIBRARYSCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Ecology
What Bats Eat
Insect-Host-Parasitoid-Hrcek 2011
Reconstructing ancient communities (permafrost)
Untangling food webs
Evolution of communities
Discovering new species/BINS/hidden diversity
Polychaete worms
Madagascar ants?
Barcoding Macroscope
Indicator vector-Klee diagrams
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RECOGNITION
[THIS NEEDS SOME THOUGHT – MORE DETAIL CAN BE ON LINE – GOAL IS TO
MAKE THE HIGHLIGHTS USEFUL WHEN HANDED EG TO A KEY PARTNER OR
SPONSOR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD – MORE COMPLETE LISTS CAN BE
ONLINE – NEED TO EXAMINE GREG SINGER’S FULL LIST OF FUNDERS – could
have short list of Major Sponsors & then longer ‘full’ list]
[lead?] SPONSORS
Ontario Genomics Institute
Genome Canada
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
IDRC/CRDI
NSERC/CRSNG
Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation
PARTNERS [need to think who eg in Europe or S Africa or Argentina would
want to be listed…]
Chinese Academy of Sciences
GBIF
University of Guelph
etc
FAQs (questions that Highlights should answer)
How long does it now take to obtain a barcode?
Is it getting easier and easier to match it in BOLD or GenBank?
What does it cost?
How many barcodes were added in the past year?
Which parts of the library grew especially well in 2011?
How many labs are now active?
Are there still some really recalcitrant taxa?
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