Chironomidae (Diptera) pupal exuviae samples are commonly used for biological monitoring of aquatic habitats. DNA barcoding has proved useful for species identification of chironomid life stages containing cellular tissue, but the barcoding success of chironomid pupal exuviae is unknown. We assessed whether standard DNA barcoding could be efficiently used for species identification of chironomi...

An important and undervalued challenge in characterizing symbiotic protists is the accurate identification of their host species. Here, we use DNA barcoding to resolve one confusing case involving parabasalian symbionts in the hindgut of the Hawaiian lowland tree termite, Incisitermes immigrans, which is host to several parabasalians, including the type species for the genus Coronympha, C. clev...

DNA barcoding efforts involving animals have focused on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (Cox1) gene. Some authors suggest that this marker might under-diagnose young species. Herein, we examine Cox1 and control region diversity in a sample of Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), a species with an extremely wide geographic distribution in the major rivers of Siberia and in Lake...

DNA-based species identification, known as barcoding, transformed the traditional approach to the study of biodiversity science. The field is transitioning from barcoding individuals to metabarcoding communities. This revolution involves new sequencing technologies, bioinformatics pipelines, computational infrastructure, and experimental designs. In this dynamic genomics landscape, metabarcodin...

Molecular methods, such as DNA barcoding, have the potential to enhance biomonitoring programs worldwide. Altering routinely used sample preservation methods to protect DNA from degradation may pose a potential impediment to application of DNA barcoding and metagenomics for biomonitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates. Using higher volumes or concentrations of ethanol, requirements for shorte...

Herbal drug authentication is an important task in traditional medicine; however, it is challenged by the limitations of traditional authentication methods and the lack of trained experts. DNA barcoding is conspicuous in almost all areas of the biological sciences and has already been added to the British pharmacopeia and Chinese pharmacopeia for routine herbal drug authentication. However, DNA...

DNA barcoding is a promising approach to the diagnosis of biological diversity in which DNA sequences serve as the primary key for information retrieval. Most existing software for evolutionary analysis of DNA sequences was designed for phylogenetic analyses and, hence, those algorithms do not offer appropriate solutions for the rapid, but precise analyses needed for DNA barcoding, and are also...

Michael S. Becker*, T. Jonathan Davies and Wayne H. Pollard Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street W, Montreal, QC H3A 0B9, Canada; Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, The Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark; Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Doctor Penfield Avenue, Mo...

Sample barcoding facilitates the analysis of tens or even hundreds of samples in a single next-generation sequencing (NGS) run, but more efficient methods are needed for high-throughput barcoding and size-trimming of long PCR products. Here we present a two-step PCR approach for barcoding followed by pool shearing, adapter ligation, and 5' end selection for trimming sets of DNA templates of any...

Odonate larvae are commonly considered opportunistic general predators in freshwater ecosystems. However, the dietary breadth of most odonate larvae in forest streams is still poorly documented. We characterized the prey species and estimated the level of dietary niche overlap of two damselflies, Euphaea formosa Hagen 1869 and Matrona cyanoptera Hämäläinen and Yeh, 2000 in a forest stream of ce...