title: Identification of species with DNA-based technology: current progress and challenges.
abstract: One of the grand challenges of modern biology is to develop accurate and reliable technologies for a rapid screening of DNA sequence variation. This topic of research is of prime importance for the detection and identification of species in numerous fields of investigation, such as taxonomy, epidemiology, forensics, archaeology or ecology. Molecular identification is also central for the diagnosis, treatment and control of infections caused by different pathogens. In recent years, a variety of DNA-based approaches have been developed for the identification of individuals in a myriad of taxonomic groups. Here, we provide an overview of most commonly used assays, with emphasis on those based on DNA hybridizations, restriction enzymes, random PCR amplifications, species-specific PCR primers and DNA sequencing. A critical evaluation of all methods is presented focusing on their discriminatory power, reproducibility and user-friendliness. Having in mind that the current trend is to develop small-scale devices with a high-throughput capacity, we briefly review recent technological achievements for DNA analysis that offer great potentials for the identification of species.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto (IPATIMUP), Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal. fpereira@ipatimup.pt
authors.forename: Filipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carneiro
authors.forename: António
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amorim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004247:DNA