Morphological Databases

Morphological Databases

Morphological Databases

The consortium for the barcode of life was created in 2004. The idea was to develop a rapid and cost effective molecular technique to identify species. The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene appeared to be a strong candidate for DNA barcoding. A short DNA sequence within this gene allows the reliable identification of most of the biological species. The barcode consists of a relatively short sequence, 648 nucleotide base pairs long in most groups.

The advantage of a standardized method is quite obvious in the sense it allows identification of various species using a unique marker and method. A crucial component of this initiative is the creation of a database referencing the species and their barcodes that can be used to assign unknown species to known species.