The International Barcode of Life project

The International Barcode of Life project (iBOL) has one overarching goal - to assemble the sequence library and the technology necessary to identify organisms rapidly and inexpensively. This goal is underpinned by the observation that sequence diversity in short, standardized gene regions (DNA barcodes) enables both the identification of known species and the discovery of new ones. By building an identification system based on digital DNA strings rather than on analogue traits, DNA barcoding promises a massive improvement in our capacity to monitor and manage biodiversity with profound societal and economic impacts