GenBank & Taxonomical Nomenclature/identification

[Thomas Lammers]

At 03:14 PM 7/27/00 -0600, Stuart Poss wrote:
>Nonetheless, it would be extremely helpful for GenBank to recommend
>(require?) that a collection voucher number is attached to the archive
>entry, either from the same specimen (best) or from another specimen
>known (believed) to be the same species.  That way, regardless of what
>identification is given, there is at least a reasonable chance that an
>expert can examine the voucher and determine what the species is
>regardless of the name used.   Otherwise, one can only hope that the
>molecular biologist submitting the sequence has had a good course in
>taxonomy or has sent the material to a specialist.  This probably does
>not present too much of a problem for birds and mammals, but can be more
>of a problem for fishes and invertebrates, where many species appear
>"similar" to better known forms or may later prove to be more than one species.

We need to learn from cytology.  Thousands of unvouchered chromosome number
determinations of plants are disregarded today because of uncertainties
regarding identity.  Do you want to spend hundreds of hours in the lab only
to have the next generation of biologists disregard your sequences because
you wouldn't spend 10 minutes making a voucher?

For a concise summary of the issues, see:
P. Goldblatt, P. C. Hoch, & L. M. McCook, "Documenting scientific data: the
need for voucher specimens," Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 79:
969-970 (1992).





Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-7085
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
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"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
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