05-18-2007 - Uncategorized

sagar: Author=” program=” video=’11′Inside cover of children’s biology book from the 1960s by Charles Harper. (Mohawk)
It’s like a science fiction novel, where the heroes are trying to identify all life on Earth using each species’ unique genetic code.

Except that it’s not fiction. Scientists have found a way to categorize species – to understand something fundamental abut those groups of plants and animals defined by their ability to interbreed and produce fertile offspring. They call it DNA barcoding.

Mark Stoeckle is with the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University in New York, New York. He told Earth & Sky that some labs are starting to build up libraries of DNA sequences from many species. One reason: of an estimated 10 million plant and animal species on Earth, so far science has named fewer than two million.

Earth & Sky’s Jorge Salazar spoke with Dr. Stoeckle about DNA barcoding and why scientists are doing it.