Janzen Daniel H, Hajibabaei Mehrdad, Burns John M, Hallwachs Winnie, Remigio Ed, Hebert Paul D N
Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2005 Oct 29;360(1462):1835-45. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2005.1715.
By facilitating bioliteracy, DNA barcoding has the potential to improve the way the world relates to wild biodiversity. Here we describe the early stages of the use of cox1 barcoding to supplement and strengthen the taxonomic platform underpinning the inventory of thousands of sympatric species of caterpillars in tropical dry forest, cloud forest and rain forest in northwestern Costa Rica. The results show that barcoding a biologically complex biota unambiguously distinguishes among 97% of more than 1000 species of reared Lepidoptera. Those few species whose barcodes overlap are closely related and not confused with other species. Barcoding also has revealed a substantial number of cryptic species among morphologically defined species, associated sexes, and reinforced identification of species that are difficult to distinguish morphologically. For barcoding to achieve its full potential, (i) ability to rapidly and cheaply barcode older museum specimens is urgent, (ii) museums need to address the opportunity and responsibility for housing large numbers of barcode voucher specimens, (iii) substantial resources need be mustered to support the taxonomic side of the partnership with barcoding, and (iv) hand-held field-friendly barcorder must emerge as a mutualism with the taxasphere and the barcoding initiative, in a manner such that its use generates a resource base for the taxonomic process as well as a tool for the user.
通过促进生物素养，DNA条形码技术有潜力改善全球与野生生物多样性的关联方式。在此，我们描述了利用细胞色素氧化酶亚基I（cox1）条形码技术的早期阶段，以补充和强化分类学平台，该平台是哥斯达黎加西北部热带干燥森林、云雾森林和雨林中数千种同域分布毛虫物种编目的基础。结果表明，对生物复杂性高的生物群进行条形码编码，能明确区分1000多种饲养鳞翅目物种中的97%。少数条形码重叠的物种亲缘关系很近，不会与其他物种混淆。条形码技术还揭示了形态学定义物种、相关性别中存在大量隐性物种，并强化了对形态上难以区分的物种的识别。为使条形码技术充分发挥其潜力，（i）迫切需要具备快速且低成本地对老旧博物馆标本进行条形码编码的能力；（ii）博物馆需要抓住机遇并承担起保存大量条形码凭证标本的责任；（iii）必须调集大量资源来支持与条形码技术相关的分类学工作；（iv）手持式野外适用条形码读取器必须作为与分类学界和条形码计划的共生关系而出现，其使用方式要能为分类学过程生成资源库，同时为使用者提供工具。
