DNA Barcoding: An Effective Technique in Molecular Taxonomy

Global warming is affecting regional climate, ecosystem and diversity array of species by causing physical and biological changes throughout the planet. Therefore, there is a need to develop a technique which can identify organisms and differentiate between very closely related species in order conserve species diversity. Classical taxonomy has accelerated its progress with the adoption of new molecular techniques like DNA barcoding to cope with the huge population of organisms and biodiversity available in this planet. DNA barcoding uses short gene sequences which are well classified portion of the genome. With the advent of high throughput sequencing technology such as Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology the DNA barcoding has become more accurate, fast and reliable in the last decade. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) has given a platform for taxonomists across all the countries to collaborate, identify and preserve the biodiversity across the globe. In this review we summarized the recent advances and developments in the DNA barcoding attempts across animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, viruses and protists. We have also attempted to present the popular tools used in DNA barcoding in a chronological order of their development.