DNA Barcoding Reveals New Insight into 147 Bird Species

DNA barcoding could help scientists conserve species, such as whales, and even identify new species. Now, researchers have used the method to sequence 388 individuals of 147 different bird species from the Netherlands, revealing a bit more about the evolutionary history of these birds.

The core idea of DNA barcoding is based on the fact that just a small portion of a single gene can already show that there is less variation between individuals of one species than between those of several species. When comparing two barcode sequences, you can establish whether they belong to one single species or two species.

"The barcoding approach is particularly useful in musea," said Aliabadian, Ferdowsi, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This illustrates the value of DNA tissue vouchers 'ready for use' from the bird collection of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden."

After examining samples from birds in this case, the researchers found that 95 percent of these species were represented by a unique barcode. Yet six species of gulls and skuas had at least one shared barcode. This is best explained by these species representing recent radiations with ongoing hybridization.

That's not all the researchers found, either. They discovered that the Western Lesser Whitethroat showed deep divergences between individuals. This suggested that they possibly represent two distinct taxa, the Western and the Northeastern Lesser Whitethroat.

The findings reveal a little bit more about DNA barcodes and about these species of birds. In fact, this method allows scientists to identify known Dutch bird species with a very high resolution. Some species were also flagged for further investigation, which shows that even well-known areas such as the Netherlands can hold secrets about the species that live there.

Currently, the researchers hope to use DNA barcoding in order to learn more about species and to discover a bit more about their evolutionary history.

The findings are published in the journal ZooKeys.