The GBOL5 Web App – Plant barcode management and analysis

Wiechers S, Müller KF

Abstract

DNA barcoding allows to identify species using predefined target genes. It is especially useful when samples are degraded, fragmented or consist of hard to identify parts, e. g. larval stages of insects or seeds and roots of plants. The German Barcode of Life (GBOL) project aims to create a database of all plants, animals and fungi in Germany and develop applications of DNA barcoding. A database-backed web application was developed for GBOL5, the sub-project working on barcoding the approximately 4,800 German land plant species, to allow scientists from all involved research groups to work on the same data and to automate common workflows. Sequence reads can be uploaded and are then automatically assembled to generate barcodes for the four GBOL5 marker genes. A taxonomy-driven quality assessment is then conducted in order to find misidentified or contaminated samples. Various analysis methods allow for statistical testing of biological hypotheses and are directly accessible within the app, including intra- and infraspecific variation, regional differences and an assessment of species boundaries.