The Open Applied Informatics Journal

2011, 5 : 45-61
Published online 2011 July 15. DOI: 10.2174/1874136301005010045
Publisher ID: TOAINFOJ-5-45

The Quest for a General and Reliable Fungal DNA Barcode

Livio Vincent Robert , Szaniszlo Szöke , Ursula Eberhardt , Gianluigi Cardinali , Wieland Meyer , Keith A. Seifert , C. Andre Lévesque and Chris T. Lewis
University of PerugiaDepartment of Applied Biology – Microbiology Division, Borgo 20 Giugno, 74, I – 06121 Perugia, Italy;

ABSTRACT

DNA sequences are key elements for both identification and classification of living organisms. Mainly for historical reasons, a limited number of genes are currently used for this purpose. From a mathematical point of view, any DNA segment, at any location, even outside of coding regions and even if they do not align, could be used as long as PCR primers could be designed to amplify them. This paper describes two methods to search genomic data for the most efficient DNA segments that can be used for identification and classification.

Keywords:

Genome, molecular, sequences, barcoding.