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Madagascar study finds 40 new reptiles

sbateson — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:11:38 +0000

DNA barcoding provides a clear advantage for conservation

A DNA barcoding study targeting the entire reptile fauna of the biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar identified over 40 new species of snakes, skinks, chameleons and geckos.

Using a newly developed set of reptile-specific primers for COI, the research team from Brussels, Munich and Brunswick compared gene sequences of around 250 species out of the 393 currently described on the world’s fourth largest island.

“The large number of newly identified reptile species was striking, because the reptiles of Madagascar have been intensively studied during the last 20 years” comments lead researcher Zoltán T. Nagy, of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels.

“This surprisingly high number of reptiles new to science represents more than 10 percent of the presently known diversity of reptiles on the island, and highlights Madagascar’s importance as being one of the ‘hottest hotspots’ of biodiversity on Earth.”

“In the future, these unknown species will have to be studied morphologically before they can be described and named formally” adds Munich taxonomist Frank Glaw, a co-author of the study.

More importantly, the study generated DNA barcodes for about 110 of the 140 Madagascan reptiles included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), providing a valuable tool for controlling illegal wildlife trade using molecular identification methods.

“DNA barcoding will facilitate rapid and minimally invasive identification of animals—a clear advantage in the context of conservation,” commented coauthor Gontran Sonet, also of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

Click photo to enlarge

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A new weapon in the fight against illegal logging

sbateson — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:13:29 +0000

DNA Barcoding of tropical woods

Dirk Steinke

Illegal logging is on the increase world wide with a focus on rare and protected tree species. Criminal gangs fell the trees to satisfy an international black market for the wood. It is a lucrative business for the loggers, e.g. the wood for a single violin bow is worth several thousand dollars. Just recently the Brazilian police confiscated several violins which are believed to be made from brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata) an endangered tree that gave Brazil its name.

Gibson Guitar Corp, which makes some of the world’s most prized guitars, agreed on August 6 to pay a $300,000 penalty after it admitted to possible illegal purchases of ebony from Madagascar.

Unfortunately, mislabelling, lying about origin or substituting one type of wood for another have become common practices in the timber trade. Interpol recently estimated that illegal logging alone causes losses in assets and revenue in excess of 30 Billion Dollar annually.

For a long time the only instruments in the fight against trade in illegal timber were regulations and preventive measures, which have not met with much success. Recently the focus shifted towards using the criminal justice system and law enforcement techniques. Therefore, it was about time to equip law enforcement authorities with a tool that provides conclusive evidence in such cases – DNA Barcoding.

DNA Barcoding is capable to prove that seized wood or wood products are from protected species and there is great interest to develop a barcode reference library of plants that are protected from international trade. Moreover, industry officials say that rapid advances and plunging costs for DNA testing of timber now make it commercially viable for companies trying to meet new regulations in the United States and Europe against such practices.

Two examples demonstrate that the technology reached a point where it could be used on a routine base and even successfully transferred into a business model.

A method of extracting DNA taken from a piece of wood was refined at Andrew Lowe’s laboratory at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. They were able to extract degraded DNA from decades-old wood and get accurate results. Lowe is also the chief scientific officer at Double Helix Tracking Technologies, a Singapore based company that has commercialised the DNA testing for wood, with most testing done at the lab in Adelaide. The new method and recently implemented laws in the U.S. and Europe led to an increase in business for Double Helix and their ultimate goal is to make DNA testing so cheap that all companies will do it.

DNA testing was already having an impact in prosecutions, said Shelley Gardner, illegal logging programme coordinator for the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. “Any time we’ve gone to the point where we got to court, they plea-bargained because the DNA was already such a deterrent. And these are just small cases, so when you start talking about real trade, I think that could have a big impact,” she said in an interview with Reuters.

While DNA collected from people and animals has revolutionised police investigations worldwide, obtaining and identifying genetic material from plants to provide hard evidence to help convict criminals seems more complex. This brought Renato Paranaiba, a forensics expert with the Brazilian Federal Police, all the way to Edinburgh, Scotland to learn plant DNA extraction techniques in the lab of Pete Hollingsworth at the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden. He wants to extend his expertise to put an end to illegal logging in the Amazonian rainforest. “I am used to working with bones more than plants, but over the past few years there has been a move to combat environmental crime here, focused on the Amazonian regions,” he said in an interview with The Scotsman. “Our government wants to do more to combat this crime and we have permanent environmental crime operations now in Brazil but although human and animal DNA is established in our police work we know little about plant DNA, so this is all new for me. We want to join the vanguard and this lab at the Botanics is the most respected around the world.”

The hope is that the collaboration of enforcement institutions, business, and scientists will help create a barcode library for endangered plant species.

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Fish Barcoding Workshop

john.chenery — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:12:43 +0000

Tiruchirappalli, India

A national level Training cum Workshop on “DNA Barcoding of Fish and Marine Life – Molecular Analysis and Bioinformatics Approaches” will be held September 12-14 at the Department of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University. The course, organized by Dr. R. Rajaram, will be useful for teachers/researchers working in Biodiversity Conservation.

- Workshop Brochure – PDF

- Registration Form – PDF

Cláudio Oliveira

john.chenery — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:58:07 +0000

Brazil representative

Biosciences Institute
Universidade Estadual Paulista
São Paulo, Brazil

Email: claudio@ibb.unesp.br

New tools for tracking a voracious pest

john.chenery — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:05:09 +0000

- Tracking; the Russian wheat aphid with DNA barcodes

- Full story: Barcoding Insects to Control Them (PDF)

Barcoding Insects to Control Them

john.chenery — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:48:39 +0000

- Barcoding Insects to Control Them (PDF)

- Web version

40 new reptile species found on Madagascar

john.chenery — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:22:55 +0000

- 40 new reptile species

- PLoS One paper

Philippines adopts DNA barcoding for fish species

john.chenery — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:14:42 +0000

- Philippines adopts DNA barcoding in fish species

QBOL EPPO Conference on DNA barcoding and diagnostic methods for plant pests

john.chenery — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:29:26 +0000

Haarlem, NL

A joint conference on plant pest DNA barcoding and diagnostic methods for plant pests will be organized by QBOL (Quarantine Organisms Barcode of Life) and the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) from May 21-25 in Haarlem, Netherlands.

QBOL is a three-year project (2009-2012) funded under the 7th Framework Program of the European Union. QBOL seeks to generate DNA barcode information for vouchered specimens of quarantine pests. The DNA sequence will form the basis of a publically available, searchable, web accessible database.

The Conference will be organized into different session covering different disciplines (bacteria, fungi, insects, nematodes, phytoplasmas, and viruses) where QBOL outcomes will be presented as well as other diagnostic methods.

- Registration & more information

Plant DNA speaks English, identifies new species

john.chenery — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:15:10 +0000

- Plant DNA speaks English, identifies new species

- Publication in PhytoKeys