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DNA barcoding and taxonomy: dark taxa and dark texts.

Roderic D M Page1

  • 1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK roderic.page@glasgow.ac.uk.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
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Summary

Digitizing the living world faces challenges from undigitized taxonomic literature and unidentified DNA sequences. Voucher specimens, with stable identifiers, can link these data, but a global digital dashboard is needed to assess online biodiversity data availability.

Keywords:
DNA barcodingdark taxadark textsdigitizationtaxonomy

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Area of Science:

  • Biodiversity informatics
  • Taxonomy
  • Genomic sciences

Background:

  • The digitization of the living world involves both classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding.
  • Significant portions of taxonomic literature remain undigitized ('dark texts'), particularly from the mid- to late-twentieth century.
  • DNA barcoding generates computable data, but many sequences lack species-level identification ('dark taxa').

Purpose of the Study:

  • To address the challenges in integrating biodiversity data due to undigitized literature and unidentified sequences.
  • To explore the potential of voucher specimens as a common currency for linking taxonomic literature and sequence databases.
  • To advocate for a global 'digital dashboard' for assessing online biodiversity data availability.

Main Methods:

  • Review of current practices in taxonomic literature digitization and DNA barcoding.
  • Analysis of the role of voucher specimens in bridging taxonomic and genomic data.
  • Discussion of the need for stable, resolvable specimen identifiers.

Main Results:

  • Undigitized taxonomic literature and 'dark taxa' (unidentified sequences) hinder biodiversity data integration.
  • Voucher specimens offer a potential solution for linking names, literature, and sequences.
  • A lack of stable specimen identifiers is a key obstacle to this integration.

Conclusions:

  • Voucher specimens are crucial for connecting classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding data.
  • Development of stable specimen identifiers is essential for effective data integration.
  • A global 'digital dashboard' is proposed to monitor and improve online biodiversity data accessibility.