The Opportunity in the Marketplace

Climate change, invasive species migration and globalization of trade threaten natural ecosystems and biodiversity around the world.

Traditional methods to classify plants and animals demand great skill and time and are not sufficient to effectively combat these threats.  Quick and accurate approaches are relevant to agricultural researchers, police and customs authorities, retailers, paleontologists and others. For example, new methods that allow correct and rapid species identifications are critical for both detection of food borne illnesses and the prevention of deceptive practices, such as those where species are intentionally mislabeled to circumvent import restrictions or for resale as species of higher value.

Moreover, novel approaches are required to identify species that are independent of developmental stage, amount of tissue available or sex of the organism.  The current requirements for species identification point to a molecular approach.

The Solution provided by Genomics

DNA Barcoding is the use of short stretches of DNA that serve as unique identifiers of individual species.  This molecular approach is based on a taxonomic method that uses a small genetic marker in each organism’s DNA to identify the exact species. With the use of only a snippet of genetic code, DNA barcoding identifies and distinguishes known and unknown species in a quick, cheap, easy and accurate manner.

Barcoding technology promises a massive improvement in the capacity to monitor and manage biodiversity with profound economic impacts in areas such as invasive species detection at borders, animal food purity assessment and climate change impact.

The Genomic Resource

The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) is an online workbench that aids collection, management, analysis and use of DNA barcodes.  The BOLD framework holds sequence data as well as complete taxonomic designation, geo-temporal collection data, and specimen images. The database supports the organization and analysis of data, houses a barcode repository and provides an interface for submission of barcode records to GenBank. 

The BOLD platform serves all members of the barcoding community, from individual researchers to international barcoding coalitions. The database receives an average of 4 million hits per month. As of April 2010, BOLD contained approximately 834,000 barcodes, with over 80% of these records inputted by the Canadian barcoding team. 

In the future, it is likely that handheld scanners (similar to a GPS device) will link directly to the BOLD database.  Upon insertion of a tissue snippet into the scanner, the user will receive an instant on-site identification of a creature or plant.

The Scientists

Dr. Paul Hebert is a pioneer and leader in the field of DNA barcoding.  He is the Director of the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (CCDB), a Professor at the University of Guelph, a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biodiversity and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.  Dr. Hebert and a team of co-investigators at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario are leading an international barcoding effort which includes more than 100 researchers from 30 nations.     

The Funding

These research endeavors are supported by Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation, Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute and other funding partners in Canada and internationally.

Learn More 

Learn more about BOLD here.

Learn more about the project here and about resources associated with this and other large-scale genomics projects here.

Learn more about the Ontario Genomics Institute here.

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