Publications
A Two-Locus Global DNA Barcode for Land Plants: The Coding rbcL Gene Complements the Non-Coding trnHpsbA Spacer Region - Jun 01, 2007
[Kress, W.J. and Erickson, D.L. 2007. PLOS One. 6(e508) 1-10.]
[Kress, W.J. and Erickson, D.L. 2007. PLOS One. 6(e508) 1-10.]
A useful DNA barcode requires sufficient sequence variation to distinguish between species and ease of application across a broad range of taxa. Discovery of a DNA barcode for land plants has been limited by intrinsically lower rates of sequence evolution in plant genomes than that observed in animals. This low rate has complicated the trade-off in finding a locus that is universal and readily sequenced and has sufficiently high sequence divergence at the species-level.