Species discovery versus species identification in DNA barcoding efforts: response to Rubinoff.

Rubinoff’s (2006) essay in Conservation Biology raises some important issues relevant to the DNA barcoding initiative. Some of these issues are valid, others have been discussed recently in the DNA barcoding literature (Blaxter & Floyd 2003; Sperling 2003; Hebert et al. 2004; Moritz & Cicero 2004; Ebach & Holdrege 2005), and still others can be addressed by looking at DNA barcoding in a different light (DeSalle et al. 2005). Because papers in the DNA barcoding literature suggest that conservation biology is one of the major fields that will benefit from DNA barcoding, Rubinoff correctly argues that examining the validity of this claim is necessary.