Choice of Locus
A desirable locus for DNA barcoding should be standardized (so that large databases of sequences for that locus can be developed), present in most of the taxa of interest and sequencable without species-specific PCR primers, short enough to be easily sequenced with current technology, and provide a large variation between species yet a relatively small amount of variation within a species.
Although several loci have been suggested, a common set of choices are:
- For animals and many other eukaryotes, the mitochondrial CO1 gene
- For land plants, the concatenation of the rbcL and matK chloroplast genes
Read more about this topic: DNA Barcode
Famous quotes containing the words choice of, choice and/or locus:
“Excellence or virtue is a settled disposition of the mind that determines our choice of actions and emotions and consists essentially in observing the mean relative to us ... a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“We human beings do have some genuine freedom of choice and therefore some effective control over our own destinies. I am not a determinist. But I also believe that the decisive choice is seldom the latest choice in the series. More often than not, it will turn out to be some choice made relatively far back in the past.”
—A.J. (Arnold Joseph)
“Seeing the locus of joy as the gate
of a city, or as a lych-gate ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)