Hollingsworth, Peter M., Forrest, Laura L., Spouge, John L., Hajibabaei, Mehrdad, Ratnasingham, Sujeevan, van der Bank, Michelle, Chase, Mark W., Cowan, Robyn S., Erickson, David L., Fazekas, Aron J., Graham, Sean W., James, Karen E., Kim, Ki-Joong, Kress, W. John, Schneider, Harald, van AlphenStahl, Jonathan, Barrett, Spencer C. H., van den Berg, Cassio, Bogarin, Diego, Burgess, Kevin S., Cameron, Kenneth M., Carine, Mark, Chacón, Juliana, Clark, Alexandra, Clarkson, James J. et al. 2009. "A DNA barcode for land plants." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, (31) 12794–12797. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0905845106.
DNA barcoding involves sequencing a standard region of DNA as a tool for species identification. However, there has been no agreement on which region(s) should be used for barcoding land plants. To provide a community recommendation on a standard plant barcode, we have compared the performance of 7 leading candidate plastid DNA regions ( spacer, gene, gene, gene, gene, spacer, and spacer). Based on assessments of recoverability, sequence quality, and levels of species discrimination, we recommend the 2-locus combination of as the plant barcode. This core 2-locus barcode will provide a universal framework for the routine use of DNA sequence data to identify specimens and contribute toward the discovery of overlooked species of land plants.
