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Identifying World's Species With Genetic Bar Codes
Fokker writes "Reuters reports that scientists from around the world launched a project on thursday to genetically identify species using bar codes. By taking a snippet of DNA from all the known species on Earth and linking them to photographs, descriptions and scientific information, the researchers plan to build the largest database of its kind."
Wont this hurt the self esteem of the animals that already have barcodes?
sorry 'bout the mess...
"Could I get a price check on a large brown marsupial?"
that we will find more unique animals that we didn't know were unique. We are still identifying more unknown species every day, now with DNA species we thought are related will now be determined not to be.
I work in this lab. Specifically, I'm working on objective analysis of RNA sequence alignment heuristics.
..based on something from Star Trek. This is the very kind of thing I think of when they pull up their tricorder to some alien race, and poof, a strand of their DNA is up on one of those pretty LCD monitors behind them.
That being said, I think this is a brilliant use of computer technology. Catalogs and databases of this kind are what we need, especially while going through the jungles of various continents in search of miraculous wonder cures. Besides, if we had done this before with the Dodo and other animals that went extinct, we could rebuild the strands of DNA, and make the animal again for study. I tend to think more and more as we corrupt the planet with roads and sidewalks that research and food will be the only reason to have living stuff around, and knowing that we have a computer database of all that is alive and the ability through cloning to reproduce any of it is at least a comforting thought.
end rant.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
...actually finding and agreeing on the locus (piece of DNA) to use for this. It has to be present in all species, i.e. in gnat and cow and jellyfish, but also has to be variable enough to be able to differenciate between, for example, the Tennesse gnat and Alabama gnat.
The main problem is that the locus must contain two regions to the right and to the left of the sequence of interest that must be highly invariable. This is necessary so that the same PCR primers can be used to amplify the sequence in most species. The amplification step is necessary for sequencing.
sombody thinks about determining human species based on their DNA ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Does this mean the pet stores of the future will allow a cashier to swipe an animal across an electric eye, greatly increasing the efficiency and speed with which people can buy large quantities of animals? Such a system could greatly help out my habit of buying as many mice as I can! Although, it becomes a problem when geneticists demand that barcodes be placed on individual fruit flies so that they, too, can be bought quickly and efficiently.
Yeah, I know the barcodes won't be put on the animals... but maybe after a trial run, customers will demand it!
The sad part is that by the time they get around to barcoding all of them, we'll have a few less species around to bar code.
"And then I visited Wikipedia
Wikipeople have free online directory of species WikiSpecies
... the find ever species and make a bar code for it. Then what ? Call me dumb - but the point of a barcode is to easily scan it .. last time i checked, frogs dont have barcodes on them.
.. 'oh - i'll just check the barcode database! oh wait, it doesnt have one .. damn'
.. just build the database (perhaps spending more time (and cash) on it you could have the full DNA sequence .. not just a scrap)
;)
You find a weird insect
scrap the barcode thing
So next time we wipe out some endangered swamp monster we have a backup
There's actually a real lack of genetic data on marsupials and monotremes. Interesting for evolutionary reasons, but also because understanding how koalas break down toxins (such as various eucalyptus oils) gives general insights into drug metabolism (there are people studying this in my lab, in fact). If you'd like to donate funds for sequencing the kangaroo, go here.
Best thing is they will scan the animal using a :cue:cat.
The fragment of DNA that they are sequencing is located on the mitochondria and is part of the cytochrome c oxidase gene (COI). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_barcode
I am a taxonomist and can tell you this is of limited usefulness, sure we will be able to see some differences between organisms, but this is already done is many studies with the control region of the mitochondria.
The problem could be if people just rely on these sequences alone to delineate species, we learnt this years ago in bacterial taxonomy that you simply cannot rely on any one particular gene (There is evidence of horizontal gene transfer in 16S genes if someone was going to counter with that).
A speciation event is driven by some environmental pressure (change in temperature say). The genes that are under selection of this pressure will change at different rates to one under no direct pressure (COI).
I could rant on but, I think this project is of some use only if combined with traditional taxonomy. The danger is that a large flashy project like this will steal research dollars away from traditional taxonomy.
Where I work, a group is using this technique to identify insect pest species.
If, for example, a group of insect eggs, or even just some parts of an insect like the legs, were found in a shipping container, then it can be extremely difficult to identify the insect species by morphology. By sampling and barcoding the DNA in the eggs or fragments then it can be determined which insect was present, and therefore whether a potential pest was present in the container.
For a country that depends on agriculture, like New Zealand does, this is a very important technology.
Maybe projects such as this one might solve some taxonomic debates such as the old chestnut about whether Megachiroptera (fruit bats) and Microchiroptera (insectivorous bats) are acutally closely related.
For those of you who don't know the debate is as to whether Megachiroptera are closer related to primates than they are to the Microchiroptera. I personally believe that fruit bats are flying monkeys. Therefore, fruitbats are the only primates native to Australia (besides Homo Sapiens obviously).
99 bottles of beer in 175 characte
Maybe one like this
Well one species already carries it's own barcode. It's always there on the back of their necks and grows back when it's removed. And one of them (X5-452) is a hottie as well.
99 bottles of beer in 175 characte
barcoding.si.edu
From their DNA barcode page:
DNA barcode sequences are very short relative to the entire genome and they can be obtained reasonably quickly and cheaply. The cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial region (COI) is emerging as the standard barcode region for higher animals. It is 648 nucleotide base pairs long in most groups...
Let us note however that most of our planet's biodiversity is contained in the 60% of the biomass that people don't talk much about: Bacteria. Most of them live in the soil and are difficult to study and are simply unknown. It would seem that this barcoding project does not include Prokaryota ( = Bacteria,Archaea) unfortunately.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Martha, I've been bitten by a snake!
Hang on Frank, let me get my barcode reader out..
*eh* *eh*
Dang it, frank, hold its head still. Can't get a read.
*bleep* *bleep*
There we go.
Good news Frank, its only a black mamba
Martha, how is that "good"? I thought they were deadly.
Frank, the life insurance is all paid up!
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
Don't you have to get them good and drunk before trying??
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I'm not fat.. I'm just big boned!
I'm not fat.. I'm big boned!!
The barcodes are coming! The barcodes are coming!