The Potential Contribution of Plant DNA Barcoding and iFlora to Plant Germplasm Conservation

Abstract

Plant diversity is the key element of ecosystem, and plays an important role in our daily life and socio鄄 economic prosperity. Preservation and utilization of plant diversity is the cornerstone of human welfare and civiliza鄄 tion, and an essential strategy to address global climate change. Although the plant conservation activities have been achieved significantly in the past decades world鄄wide, there are gaps existent that may minimize the effort to fulfill the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (2011-2020), e. g., the complexity of species origin and evolution, the lack of sufficient species information, and the shrunken taxonomy expertise. We account for the plant conservation achievement in China and point part of constrains for the success of China爷s strategy for plant conservation, which could be removed with the conceiving and implementation of the next鄄generation Flora, or iFlora project. DNA bar鄄 coding is an important element of iFlora. We brief the application of plant DNA barcoding to accurately identify spe鄄 cies in the bryophyte genus Herbertus and in a number of genera of seed plants, such as Ficus, Pedicularis, Tacca, Taxus and Trichoshanthes.