DNA Barcoding And Misunderstooding

Finding species-specific markers within the genomes of organisms has proven to be an important practice in determining the dividing lines between species. Much of the subject of molecular genetics involves the determination of ancestry as well as common ancestry between species. Using molecular genetics, the concept of phylogenetic species has proven to be one of the more effective methods of differentiating between the species. For example, while other species classifier methods have had difficulty differentiating between species of birds, Bover et al. were able to use phylogenetics to identify genes within the mitochondria of specimen from extinct Hidalgo bird species and shrew species that showed similarity, and therefore relate them to common ancestry1. …show more content…
The concept of DNA barcoding uses marker regions of DNA to differentiate between species, often known species. This has been used as a valuable tool in the investigation of the validity of products from food manufacturers. According to a study by Willette et al., the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was used to identify the phylogenetic identity of several different samples of sushi fish in Los Angeles such as Halibate, Tuna, yellowtail and several others from over 50 restaurants in 2015 which showed significant incorrect species identification on their menu2. The fact that DNA barcoding has successfully been used to differentiate between species has led to the field of research of testing the validity of food distributors species identification, and it can be implied that the use of these methods and further investigation of the COI gene could lead to strong results as a barcoding