DNA barcoding: a way forward to obtain deep insights about the realistic diversity of living organisms

DNA barcoding is an innovative tool to rapidly identify and classify organisms based on highly conserved species-specific DNA sequences. This technique has developed in parallel with other genomic-based investigations, which share special emphasis on the acquisition of data pertaining to hotspots regions of DNA (usually short sequence of DNA up to 400–800 bps). These molecular techniques helped answer many queries that remain unanswered by the traditional approaches to accurately identify organisms across the kingdoms of life. Barcoding has narrowed the gap created between diverse range of ecological and traditional studies previously left by the traditional taxonomists. These internal DNA sequence tags, which serve as molecular operational taxonomic units, originate from both nuclear as well as cytoplasmic DNA, making it further convenient to barcode organisms from lower to higher organisms. The most commonly used DNA regions in molecular taxonomic approaches include the internal transcribed spacer regions in nuclear DNA, Cox1 region in mitochondrial DNA, rbcL and mat K gene in chloroplast DNA. Further, many other DNA regions suitable for barcoding have also been identified. It is increasingly evident from a large number of investigations that DNA barcoding has made Linnaean taxonomic system more accessible and convenient to other traditional biologists. Current understanding of the DNA barcoding will further help to understand the basic mechanism and also reveal applications of this approach in different fields. Primarily these approaches offer traditional taxonomists a great opportunity to expand the realistic inventory of the diversity of flora and fauna on planet earth. This review has been written to have better understanding of the mechanism of DNA barcoding, knowledge of DNA regions that can be used as targets, applications and implications of DNA barcoding.