WG 3.1 – Core Functionality

Managing the data deluge

Chair: Paul Hebert
Biodiversity Institute of Ontario,
Guelph, Canada

Vice-chair: Sujeevan Ratnasingham
Biodiversity Institute of Ontario,
Guelph, Canada

iBOL will generate five million barcode records, placing huge demands on the capacity of the BOLD informatics team to assimilate and curate data. Moreover, early barcode studies have focused almost exclusively on animals but protocols are now emerging for plants, protists and fungi. To store barcode records for these groups, BOLD must be able to host sequence records for new barcode regions.

Incorporating all this information into BOLD introduces important new data storage and analysis issues. Although BOLD is being reconfigured to support these regions, there will be an ongoing need to incorporate additional barcode markers as they are selected for the various domains of eukaryotic life.

To broaden its user base and better support its current user community, BOLD is also adding new functions, especially new user interfaces and graphics capabilities.