Scientists to barcode world's species?!

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by hakanwar, Sep 25, 2007.

  1. hakanwar Banned Banned

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    A group of Canadian scientists is working on an ambitious project to create a global database of up to half a million of the world's species using DNA barcoding technology.

    The scientists are hoping to raise $150 million to fund an initial five-year stage of what they describe as the biodiversity equivalent of launching a rocket to the moon.

    DNA barcoding, a technique for characterising a species using only a short DNA sequence, has wide-ranging implications for health and environment.

    It could help remove illegal fish and timber supplies from global markets, get rid of pests such as mosquitoes and even reduce the numbers of collisions between birds and planes.

    Paul Hebert, head of the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding, is spearheading the plan. “We're now trying to launch in Canada the International Barcode of Life Project, which has a five-year life span,” Hebert said at a three-day seminar on DNA in Taipei.

    “We hope to put $150 million into this through a 25 Nation Alliance.”

    “The idea is collectively we would gather five million specimens and 5,00,000 species within that five-year period,” Hebert added, saying the entire project could take 15 years.

    The seminar in Taipei has brought together 350 scientists from 45 countries to debate the “barcoding of life” concept.

    Scientists estimate that while nearly 1.8 million species have already been identified, there may be another 10 million that are not known.

    But DNA barcoding technology has progressed so rapidly that scientists predict science fiction-style powers to recognise previously unfamiliar creatures could become reality in a decade.

    “Like in the film of Star Trek, anything scanned by such devices could display its image, name and function,” said Allen Chen from Taiwan's Academia Sinica.

    “This could be done 10 years from now after a global barcoding data bank is set up,” said Chen, an expert in corals.

    Scientists are already working on hand-held barcoders that would enable users to access a barcode data bank using a global positioning system, said Taiwan's Shao Kwang tsao, one of the conference chairs.

    Hebert said the alliance would invest heavily in the development of such technology.

    This week's conference is being held by the Washington based Consortium for the Barcode of Life, which was set up in 2003 in response to Hebert's initiative and now includes some 160 organisations.

    Among them is Taiwan's top academic body, Academia Sinica, one of three chief organisers of the conference.

    At its first conference in London in 2005, the consortium's data banks collected some 33,000 DNA references belonging to some 12,700 species.

    Today it counts more than 2,90,000 DNA samples from some 31,000 species, including about 20 per cent of the world's estimated 10,000 bird species and 10 per cent of the 35,000 estimated marine and freshwater fish species.

    The “barcoding of life” projects have drawn increasing attention, particularly from the US, Canada and Europe, as scientists explore the technique's applications, which range from food safety and consumer protection to the identification of herbal plants.

    One British scientist is working on a project to barcode 2,800 species of mosquito or 80 per cent of those known to the world, within two years.

    The project is aimed at reducing the scourge of malaria, which infects some 500 million people a year and is spread by some mosquitoes.

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    Source :
    sciencetrack.blogspot.com

    What do you think? I am rather afraid that we are too much involved in nature's process and likely to destroy life at all. :shrug:
     
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  3. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    And why in the world would you possibly think that barcoding (basically, just labeling) would pose ANY threat to life? That makes no sense at all to me.
     
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  5. CharonZ Registered Senior Member

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    Not even that. It is merely a taxonomic technique. The basic idea is to sequence standardized genomic regions from a given specimen and identify this species by comparing the sequence with a given database. The only information you get is its relation with other species.

    In order to destroy life you'd have to club every specimen that you find to death. Would take a while to kill all life on earth this way, though

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  7. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    kind of interesting though if they would repeat the genetic characterization in 20 or 100 years and compare it with earlier results.
     
  8. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Are they going to bring every species to Safeways
    and line them up in trolleys
    ready for scanning?

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  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I see no problems with this idea unless they must put the barcode on the specimans body somewhere and that will be rather tricky.
     
  10. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    Thats great, it would make shopping for them much easier at the checkout.
     
  11. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    What if you are behind someone buying a zebra
    they won't be able to find the barcode for ages.
    They can never find it on newspapers, but a zebra would be worse.
    You'd be really pissed off

    "Damn. Why did I join this queue"?
    "Oh no! He's got a tiger as well"
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2007
  12. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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  13. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    I used to have evangelical friends tell me that barcoding would be the "mark of the beast", perhaps the end is indeed nigh.
     
  14. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Interesting technique. Hard to imagine that it works so cleanly at the species level. How many individuals from each species are being tested, anyway? I smell a lot of lability at the lower taxonomic levels.
     
  15. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    One key is in the choice of sites on the genome.

    There are no taxonomic labeling methods that work cleanly on the species level. Species are not particularly "clean", in many situations.
     
  16. Neildo Gone Registered Senior Member

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  17. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    This is mark on the beast.
     
  18. 2inquisitive The Devil is in the details Registered Senior Member

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    ??????

    And, uh, guys they are not going to stamp a barcode on a mosquito's ass. They scan a DNA sample, than the scan is linked to a databank to identify the species the DNA came from.
     
  19. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    I thought barcoding was supposed to be the anti-christ's 'mark of the beast'. Well, I guess it literally is in this case.
     
  20. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    I think I read the initial article once but I can't remember if they got to species or not. Genus, certainly. They might have cherry-picked it.

    'Mark of the beasts".

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  21. Learned Hand Registered Senior Member

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    "And his number shall be 666." Just thought I'd throw religion into the mix as well. But really though, if we barcode everything, aren't we really placing a devil's mark on all living things? God gave us the right to name all beasts, not to cattle prod all life forms based on their DNA sequence.

    Anyway . . .
     
  22. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    It's just another kind of name. I've met Paul Hebert various times and he doesn't strike me as the satanic type.
     
  23. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    hakanwar was banned for this?
     

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