ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief technical guide to the DNA barcoding of life. DNA barcoding was trialed on animal groups that had already been identified in taxonomic science. DNA barcoding is predominantly a system that aims to speed up the identification of species already known to science, rather than a system that sets out to discover or delineate species that are unknown to science. Barcoding, based upon cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1) analysis, establishes a clear signal of species difference and does not cloud species identification with signals of intra-species difference. It was realized in the early 2000s that the CO1 barcode is not effective for identifying plants or fungi. In the case of plants, CO1 does not work because plants evolve more slowly than animals. Regions "matK" and "rcbL" have been approved as the standard DNA barcoding regions for land plants. The Barcode of Life Data Systems database is a searchable repository for barcode records.
