Blaxter Mark, Mann Jenna, Chapman Tom, Thomas Fran, Whitton Claire, Floyd Robin, Abebe Eyualem
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2005 Oct 29;360(1462):1935-43. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2005.1725.
The scale of diversity of life on this planet is a significant challenge for any scientific programme hoping to produce a complete catalogue, whatever means is used. For DNA barcoding studies, this difficulty is compounded by the realization that any chosen barcode sequence is not the gene 'for' speciation and that taxa have evolutionary histories. How are we to disentangle the confounding effects of reticulate population genetic processes? Using the DNA barcode data from meiofaunal surveys, here we discuss the benefits of treating the taxa defined by barcodes without reference to their correspondence to 'species', and suggest that using this non-idealist approach facilitates access to taxon groups that are not accessible to other methods of enumeration and classification. Major issues remain, in particular the methodologies for taxon discrimination in DNA barcode data.
对于任何希望编制完整目录的科学项目而言，地球上生命多样性的规模都是一项重大挑战，无论采用何种方法。对于DNA条形码研究来说，这一困难因以下认识而更加复杂：任何选定的条形码序列都不是“用于”物种形成的基因，而且分类单元具有进化历史。我们如何才能厘清网状种群遗传过程的混杂影响呢？利用小型底栖动物调查的DNA条形码数据，我们在此讨论在不考虑条形码所定义的分类单元与“物种”对应关系的情况下处理这些分类单元的益处，并表明采用这种非理想主义方法有助于接触到其他计数和分类方法无法触及的分类单元群体。主要问题依然存在，尤其是DNA条形码数据中分类单元鉴别的方法。
