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Molecular barcodes appear to be good tools for identifying specimens -- that is, they allow people to find the name of the species to which the specimen belongs. They can also help scientists unmask two or more look-alike species, and can be used to identify specimens that are only fragmentary.
The tool is so promising, in fact, that it will help speed up the discovery of the 8 to 10 million species that have yet to be named (approximately 1.7 million have been named). This will allow both taxonomic experts to work faster and non-taxonomists to call by name the species they encounter.
A consortium of institutions, organisations, government agencies and private sector companies from around the world has formed to develop DNA barcoding as an accurate and reliable tool for scientific research, a practical cost-effective tool for assigning unidentified specimens to their correct species, and a system for expandiing interest and activity in taxonomy.
As the researchers who are part of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) develop the standardised digital library of barcodes, this library will be made available to everyone. The barcode library cannot stand alone, however. Users of the library will need to compare barcode data with specimen records such as those made available by GBIF. GBIF data users will also need to access the barcode library.
Because of this reciprocal need, GBIF and CBOL will work together to develop standards and protocols for data exchange that will allow connecting specimen data with barcode and other kinds of molecular data. The US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is already working with GBIF in the CBOL Databases Working Group to make this happen.
The Memorandum of Cooperation signed by GBIF's and CBOL's Executive Secretaries (James Edwards and David Schindel) acknowledges the working relationship that the organisations have with each other and with all the other partners in the Consortium and the importance of each organisation to the other.
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