The Public Library of Science (PLoS [1]) issued the latest in a series of Census of Marine Life volumes, The MarBOL Collection [2], on Monday, June 28th. This collection of papers presents research in the field of Marine Barcoding under the auspices of MarBOL [3]: a joint effort of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) [4] and the Census to enhance the capacity to identify marine life by utilizing DNA barcoding.
DNA barcoding uses a short DNA sequence from a standardized and agreed-upon position in the genome as a molecular diagnostic for species-level identification. The MarBOL collection highlights the large variety of applications of this technology including identification of prey in gut contents, detection of invasive species, forensics, and seafood safety. Researchers also use barcodes to delimit species boundaries, reveal cryptic species, and discover new species.