Use of barcoding, from theory to practice (PRACTIBAR)

DNA barcoding is increasingly used as a diagnostic tool in phytosanitary laboratories. The EPPO Standard PM7/129 ‘DNA barcoding as an identification tool for a number of regulated pests’ was published on 2016-11-28. The document provides guidelines on the use of the DNA barcoding protocols in support of the identification of a number of regulated pests and invasive plant species comparing DNA barcode regions with those deposited in publicly available sequence databases. The outcome of DNA barcoding tests can be negatively affected by the incompleteness of databases, incorrectly identified species in databases, the amplification of pseudogenes or nuclear mitochondrial DNA segment (NUMTs) and introgression or hybridization events. For that reason, the analysis of sequence data should be performed by proficient operators. The main goal of the project was to raise awareness on barcoding as a generic method for pest identification and to train experts of the competent organisations.