Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2023, Vol. 58 ›› Issue (5): 831-842.DOI: 10.11983/CBB22194

• SPECIAL TOPICS • Previous Articles    

Plant Ultra-barcoding Using Herbariomics

Wang Lulu1,2,3, Yang Zhi1,2,3, Yang Yong1,2,3,*()   

  1. 1. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
    2. College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
    3. Key Laboratory of State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Subtropical Forest Biodiversity Conservation, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
  • Received:2022-08-12 Accepted:2023-02-09 Online:2023-09-01 Published:2023-09-21
  • Contact: *E-mail: yangyong@njfu.edu.cn

Abstract: Both biological conservation practices and utilization of biological resources need accurate identification. Traditional species identification relies on taxonomic specialists, but the training of taxonomic specialists is time-consuming, which leads to a bottleneck in the utilization of taxonomic knowledge. Interactive keys and Apps based on artificial intelligence are often unable to accurately identify species because of developmental stage differences and morphological variation. DNA barcoding is an effective identification technique, its identification results based on DNA sequences are not dependent upon developmental stages and morphological polymorphism, which makes it an ideal solution to rapid species identification. Here we reviewed the types and development trends of DNA barcoding. The development of DNA barcoding can be divided into two main phases: (1) The initial phase of a single marker or combination of a few markers based on the Sanger-sequencing method; (2) The ultra-barcoding phase based on the Next-generation sequencing method. We compared the main characteristics, research methods, and species identification power of different DNA barcoding methods in these two development phases. In general, the ultra-barcoding based on plastomes performs better in species identification than normal barcodes of the first phase, and is likely to become the main method of DNA barcode research. This review summarized the difficulties and solutions of DNA barcoding development. Research material availability remains the key limitation for developing ultra-barcodes of plants. Herbariomics can capture genomic data from herbarium specimens and is thus a time-saving, highly efficient and economical approach for ultra-barcoding studies. Botanists can also obtain single-copy or low-copy nuclear genes by mining herbariomic data, and thus can apply the nuclear genes in barcoding analyses to improve the species discrimination resolution and resolve the identification problems of those plant groups with complicated evolutionary history including incomplete lineage sorting and hybridization. We thus propose to mine the treasures of herbarium specimens and establish the reference database of ultra-barcoding.

Key words: herbariomics, identification, species, taxonomy, ultra-barcoding