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Jonathan van Alphen-Stahl

Bio: Jonathan van Alphen-Stahl is an academic researcher from Royal Botanic Gardens. The author has contributed to research in topics: DNA barcoding & DNA sequencing. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 1976 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The 2-locus combination of rbcL+matK will provide a universal framework for the routine use of DNA sequence data to identify specimens and contribute toward the discovery of overlooked species of land plants.
Abstract: DNA barcoding involves sequencing a standard region of DNA as a tool for species identification. However, there has been no agreement on which region(s) should be used for barcoding land plants. To provide a community recommendation on a standard plant barcode, we have compared the performance of 7 leading candidate plastid DNA regions (atpF–atpH spacer, matK gene, rbcL gene, rpoB gene, rpoC1 gene, psbK–psbI spacer, and trnH–psbA spacer). Based on assessments of recoverability, sequence quality, and levels of species discrimination, we recommend the 2-locus combination of rbcL+matK as the plant barcode. This core 2-locus barcode will provide a universal framework for the routine use of DNA sequence data to identify specimens and contribute toward the discovery of overlooked species of land plants.

2,255 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: DNA barcoding is being developed as an inexpensive and rapid molecular technique using short and standard- ized DNA sequences for species identification.
Abstract: Recently, DNA barcoding has emerged as an effec- tive tool for species identification. This has the poten- tial for many useful applications in conservation, such as biodiversity inventories, forensics and trade sur- veillance. It is being developed as an inexpensive and rapid molecular technique using short and standard- ized DNA sequences for species identification.

8 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Among the regions of the ribosomal cistron, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region has the highest probability of successful identification for the broadest range of fungi, with the most clearly defined barcode gap between inter- and intraspecific variation.
Abstract: Six DNA regions were evaluated as potential DNA barcodes for Fungi, the second largest kingdom of eukaryotic life, by a multinational, multilaboratory consortium. The region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 used as the animal barcode was excluded as a potential marker, because it is difficult to amplify in fungi, often includes large introns, and can be insufficiently variable. Three subunits from the nuclear ribosomal RNA cistron were compared together with regions of three representative protein-coding genes (largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, and minichromosome maintenance protein). Although the protein-coding gene regions often had a higher percent of correct identification compared with ribosomal markers, low PCR amplification and sequencing success eliminated them as candidates for a universal fungal barcode. Among the regions of the ribosomal cistron, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region has the highest probability of successful identification for the broadest range of fungi, with the most clearly defined barcode gap between inter- and intraspecific variation. The nuclear ribosomal large subunit, a popular phylogenetic marker in certain groups, had superior species resolution in some taxonomic groups, such as the early diverging lineages and the ascomycete yeasts, but was otherwise slightly inferior to the ITS. The nuclear ribosomal small subunit has poor species-level resolution in fungi. ITS will be formally proposed for adoption as the primary fungal barcode marker to the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, with the possibility that supplementary barcodes may be developed for particular narrowly circumscribed taxonomic groups.

4,116 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery is fast, simple method to split a sequence alignment data set into candidate species that should be complemented with other evidence in an integrative taxonomic approach.
Abstract: Within uncharacterized groups, DNA barcodes, short DNA sequences that are present in a wide range of species, can be used to assign organisms into species. We propose an automatic procedure that sorts the sequences into hypothetical species based on the barcode gap, which can be observed whenever the divergence among organisms belonging to the same species is smaller than divergence among organisms from different species. We use a range of prior intraspecific divergence to infer from the data a model-based one-sided confidence limit for intraspecific divergence. The method, called Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), then detects the barcode gap as the first significant gap beyond this limit and uses it to partition the data. Inference of the limit and gap detection are then recursively applied to previously obtained groups to get finer partitions until there is no further partitioning. Using six published data sets of metazoans, we show that ABGD is computationally efficient and performs well for standard prior maximum intraspecific divergences (a few per cent of divergence for the five data sets), except for one data set where less than three sequences per species were sampled. We further explore the theoretical limitations of ABGD through simulation of explicit speciation and population genetics scenarios. Our results emphasize in particular the sensitivity of the method to the presence of recent speciation events, via (unrealistically) high rates of speciation or large numbers of species. In conclusion, ABGD is fast, simple method to split a sequence alignment data set into candidate species that should be complemented with other evidence in an integrative taxonomic approach.

2,336 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The achievements gained through analyses of eDNA from macro-organisms in a conservation context are reviewed, its potential advantages and limitations are discussed, and it is expected the eDNA-based approaches to move from single-marker analyses of species or communities to meta-genomic surveys of entire ecosystems to predict spatial and temporal biodiversity patterns.

1,278 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
07 Jan 2010-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: The second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA represents the most suitable region for DNA barcoding applications and can be potentially used as a standard DNA barcode to identify medicinal plants and their closely related species.
Abstract: Background The plant working group of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life recommended the two-locus combination of rbcL + matK as the plant barcode, yet the combination was shown to successfully discriminate among 907 samples from 550 species at the species level with a probability of 72%. The group admits that the two-locus barcode is far from perfect due to the low identification rate, and the search is not over.

1,252 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The near‐term future of DNA metabarcoding has an enormous potential to boost data acquisition in biodiversity research as further developments associated with the impressive progress in DNA sequencing will eliminate the currently required DNA amplification step, and comprehensive taxonomic reference libraries can be built based on the well‐curated DNA extract collections maintained by standardized barcoding initiatives.
Abstract: Virtually all empirical ecological studies require species identification during data collection. DNA metabarcoding refers to the automated identification of multiple species from a single bulk sample containing entire organisms or from a single environmental sample containing degraded DNA (soil, water, faeces, etc.). It can be implemented for both modern and ancient environmental samples. The availability of next-generation sequencing platforms and the ecologists' need for high-throughput taxon identification have facilitated the emergence of DNA metabarcoding. The potential power of DNA metabarcoding as it is implemented today is limited mainly by its dependency on PCR and by the considerable investment needed to build comprehensive taxonomic reference libraries. Further developments associated with the impressive progress in DNA sequencing will eliminate the currently required DNA amplification step, and comprehensive taxonomic reference libraries composed of whole organellar genomes and repetitive ribosomal nuclear DNA can be built based on the well-curated DNA extract collections maintained by standardized barcoding initiatives. The near-term future of DNA metabarcoding has an enormous potential to boost data acquisition in biodiversity research.

1,216 citations