The end of the line for taxonomists - or is it?

[Doug Yanega]

>"BARCODE ME
>A gadget that identifies any species in an instant could transform the
>way we see life on earth p.32"

If this refers to Hebert's harebrained scheme to use the COI gene to
"barcode" all living taxa, taxonomists can ignore it - anyone who
works enough with sequencing knows that COI is unreliable, and also
can vary within even a single species, or even a single population,
making COI completely UNsuitable for taxonomic purposes.

Peace,
--

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82