The barcode of the birds of Argentina: present status and future perspectives

TUBARO, P. L.

Bye Bye, Leite, Filipinas

Simposio; XVII Annual Philippine Biodiversity Symposium, Visayas State University; 2008

The barcode of the birds of Argentina: present status and future perspectives This project started in late 2005 as a collaboration between the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales and the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, and received support from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation of New York. After two years of work, we have barcoded 1,594 specimens belonging to 500 bird species from Argentina (51% of the species present in the country), generated a frozen tissue collection (with more than 3,500 specimens from 560 bird species), assembled a DNA laboratory at MACN, and trained graduate students in molecular centers  abroad. The project revealed that mean intraspecific distance (K2P) is 31-times lower than mean intrageneric distance (0.24% vs. 7.6%). All species can be separated in a neighbor-joining analysis, with the exception of two Muscisaxicola flycatchers, and six species of Sporophila seedeaters. A few pairs of taxa have similar barcodes, but are still diagnosable. By contrast, 21 other species exhibit deep genetic structure (above 1.5% sequence divergence), including taxa in the families Furnariidae, Tyrannidae, Thamnophilidae and Troglodytidae. Compared with North American birds, our study revealed similar levels of COI variation. Thus, our study reinforces the conclusion that DNA barcodes provide both a reliable tool for species identification and a rapid indication of interesting patterns of genetic variation. Future plans for completing the project include an increasing collaboration with Argentina National Park Administration, campaigns in neighboring countries, and specific material requests to other museums and zoos.