[Taxacom] News flash: barcoders want more taxonomy

[Bob Mesibov]

Le Clerc-Blain, J., Starr, J.R., Bull, R.D., Saarela, JM. 2009. A regional approach to plant DNA barcoding provides high species resolution of sedges (Carex and Kobresia, Cyperaceae) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Molecular Ecology Resources, doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02725.x

The authors report here that if you know where your specimens come from, your barcoding gives much more accurate IDs than if you don't know. This is because the species resolution of the barcodes used is only so-so, so you might misidentify a plant as a closely related one which lives some place far from your sampling spot.

I was musing quietly about whether this supports the idea that location is an inherited character when I reached the last sentence of the Discussion:

"As many floras are poorly known or incomplete, the success of such an approach will not only require resources for a complete DNA barcoding database for plants, but also for an enhanced non-DNA understanding of the global flora at local levels."

Those Taxacomers  working on a non-DNA understanding of the global flora at local levels, a work begun by Linneaus and nowhere near complete, will be cheered to hear that Canadian barcoders are hoping their research gets "enhanced".
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Website: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html