DNA barcoding on subsets of three families in Aves

Abstract

Results showed that all 66 species investigated had unique COI sequences and no sequences were shared between the species. Our results were congruent with previous studies suggesting that the COI barcode permits distinguishing most of the closely related species. Furthermore, by using geographically distinct clusters, diagnostic characters, and threshold levels, deep genetic splits (>1.5%) were observed in three species, and we therefore suggest treating them as evolutionary significant units.

DNA barcoding and evolutionary relationships of the Phasianidae family in China

“…Therefore, it might be inappropriate to suggest a universal distance criterion for different species. In any case, distance-based DNA barcoding seems to provide sufficient information to identify and delineate a large majority of bird species, including those belonging to the Phasianidae family, through pairwise comparisons (Yoo et al, 2006;Kerr et al, 2007;Tavares and Baker, 2008;Aliabadian et al, 2009;Johnsen et al, 2010;Cai et al, 2010;Breman et al, 2013). These preceding studies also indicate that the COI barcode facilitated the separation of even the most closely related species.…”

“…Different markers are required to resolve the taxonomic status of these species. However, research remains limited on the DNA barcoding of Phasianidae (Cai et al, 2010).…”

DNA barcoding and phylogenetic relationships of genera Picoides and Dendrocopos (Aves: Picidae)

“…Previous barcoding studies on birds mainly focused on the surveys of regional groups, such as the Korean (Park et al, 2011), North American (Kerr et al, 2007), Southeast Asian (Lohman et al, 2009), Neotropical (Kerr et al, 2009b), and Scandinavian groups (Johnsen et al, 2010). Moreover, COI barcoding was successfully used to reconstruct the phylogenies of several animal groups at the family level (Cai et al, 2010;Ke, 2014, 2015). However, few DNA barcoding studies have been conducted at the genus level (Breman et al, 2013).…”

Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I barcoding of the green bee-eater (Merops orientalis)

“…Despite the successful application of DNA barcoding for species identification of birds from different regions (Hebert et al, 2004;Yoo et al, 2006;Vilaça et al, 2006;Kerr et al, 2007Kerr et al, , 2009Chaves et al, 2008;Cai et al, 2010), few barcodes of birds from Saudi Arabian have been determined (Khan et al, 2010). Here, we sequenced the 694-bp region of the COI gene of Merops orientalis and compared these sequences to the previously published sequences of another species, Merops apiaster.…”

“…However, due to the scarcity of barcoding data, a consensus has not been firmly established to assign a sequence threshold to screen for splits referred to as putative species. Therefore, a survey of intraspecific barcodes from different geographical regions has been strongly recommended (Cai et al, 2010).…”