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No simple solution
Barcodes on groceries instantly reveal the iden-
tity and cost of an item in just a few black and
white stripes. In animals, a mitochondrial gene
called CO1 seems to work in a similar way, as a
kind of species tag. Its sequence varies enough
to distinguish most animal lineages but is con-
served enough that a single DNA probe works
for most organisms. This simplicity has sparked
plans to make hand-held sequencers that can
provide quick readouts in the field (Science,
18 February 2005, p. 1037).
From the start, Kress and others knew that
species. But despite a strong effort by Kress Chase et al. matK, rpoC1, rpoB Betty Moore foundations—which had
and dozens of other botanists and systema- financed work in the area—responded with
tists, barcoding for plants has yet to gel. “We Chase et al. matK, rpoC1 trnH-psbA $900,000 to support further evaluation of
did not reach consensus” about a few issues, barcode candidates. Mark Chase and Robyn
says Ki-Joong Kim, a botanist at Korea Uni- Kim et al. matK, atpF/H trnH-psbA Cowan of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
versity in Seoul, who has come up with his in Richmond, U.K., and researchers from
Kim et al. matK, atpF/H psbK/I
own barcoding scheme. about 10 institutions screened 100 gene and
On the table. Over the past 6 months, researchers spacer regions in the chloroplast to see which
*The Second International Barcode of Life Conference have proposed several combinations of DNA regions could be pulled out by a single probe. They
was held 16 to 21 September 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. for barcoding plants. also checked 96 pairs of species representing
the plant kingdom to see which were variable. set of markers was not quite decided on,” he shopping for anyone seeking animal bar-
And they evaluated the most promising half- notes. Most of the researchers agree that Kim codes. But neither BOLD nor public data-
dozen in specif ic plant groups. Kress’s and Chase’s matK and Kress’s spacer should bases that archive DNA sequences will accept
Smithsonian group declined to participate; be used. And most are calling for a third plant barcodes until there is a single agreed-
they continued refining the spacer strategy region, likely one of the two other spacers upon standard. Furthermore, BOLD will need
they had proposed. proposed by Kim. Graham and his col- to develop new bioinformatics to accommo-
In the 6 June issue of PloS One, Kress and leagues are going to evaluate these four can- date barcodes that include multiple DNA
his colleagues reported their results: They didates and report back later this fall on how regions. “I am worried that if we don’t start
adopted a more complex strategy to conduct well they work. thinking about this database [problem], sud-
a survey of 50 plant species. “We all wanted Kress, however, left frustrated. He points denly we will have thousands of sequences
the ideal—a single region,” Kress recalls. out that several papers presented at the meet- and no place to put them,” Kress says.
But as his team looked beyond flowering ing supported his choices for a barcode, The potential chaos is reflected in barcod-
plants to mosses, liverworts, and other dis- whereas there’s little published data support- ing for medicinal plants. The Smithsonian
tant kin, they ran into too much variation. ing other scenarios. He’s hesitant about any group has developed a barcode library for
Although researchers could line up and com- three-gene scenario because it would create 750 medicinal plants. But until recently, Kress
pare sequences in closely related plants, “an order of magnitude more work.” Any- wasn’t aware that Liu has been using yet
those in unrelated plants such as ginger and way, he says, “we’re
up during the Taipei meeting; discussions says Graham. “The criteria to pick these longer than anticipated and certainly longer
were intense. The Korean strategy bubbled markers are somewhat contradictory.” than what we hoped,” he points out. “But, at the
up as quite promising, says plant systematist But there’s a growing need to come up with end of the day, the data will reveal which are
Sean Graham of the University of British a solution. Right now, the Barcode of Life the most effective high-performing regions.”
Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. But “a final Data Systems (BOLD) provides one-stop –ELIZABETH PENNISI