Progress

 

WE ARE NOT AT THE END BUT WE are producing

BOLD Database

outputs and publications

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What do we have and what else to do?

The idea of creating a comprehensive DNA barcodes reference library of aquatic biota in Slovakia was established around 2010, and we started to develop it more intensively since 2015. Our activities were also motivated by the involvement of our team in the multinational EU COST Action DNAqua-Net, one of the main goals of which is to fill the gaps in the reference DNA libraries of European freshwater and marine biota.

BOLD database - project "SKBAF" (Barcoding Aquatic Fauna of Slovakia)

In 2016, a “container” project with the acronym “SKBAF” (Barcoding Aquatic Fauna of Slovakia) was created in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) database, in which all barcodes produced under the AquaBOL.SK initiative are collected. The COI sequences (fragment of cytochrome oxidase I) are registered in it within several partial projects focused on different taxonomic groups e.g., SKTRI – Trichoptera of Slovakia, SKODO – Odonata of Slovakia …, or specific aquatic habitats e.g., SKALP – Fauna of Alpine lakes…

making data available

The common idea of all barcoding initiatives in the world should be to create publicly available sequence data, usable for both scientific purposes and practice. In fact, much of the barcodes remains private, since the authors want to protect the results of their efforts prior its publishing. The data produced by AquaBOL.SK is still largely non-public, but we publish it on an ongoing basis and our effort is to make it freely available as soon as possible. However, if you are interested in accessing our data, please contact us.

Standards of DNA barcoding

AquaBOL.SK follows the generally established standards for DNA barcodeing accepted by all contributors. All steps taken during the acquisition of DNA barcodes (giant material, metadata, document material, DNA analysis, data evaluation, data entry into the BOLD database) are performed in accordance with the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) guidelines and requirements: DNA barcode sequences they are generated from predetermined organisms (if possible); sequenced specimens are photographed and stored in a collection; the remaining DNA is stored in a collection of DNA isolates; sequences and corresponding metadata are inserted into the BOLD database. All BOLD barcodes related to AquaBOL.SK are marked with the “SKBAF” mark.
AquaBOL.SK is committed to maintaining high standards and producing high quality and reliable data for further research and application in practice.

aquatic biota of Slovakia - what we are missing?

Still a lot of … Sequences of many species of organisms with occurrence also in the territory of Slovakia are already in the BOLD database and they significantly help with the identification of “our” species, but the samples come mostly from other countries. However, to fulfil the idea of DNA barcoding in practice or further research, it is necessary to recognize and quantify the local and intraspecific genetic diversity of individual species, not to mention potential cryptic diversity, endemic species, etc. Many species do not yet have their records in the database. So far, the number of sequences gained from organisms collected in Slovakia is terribly low in the database (according to an analysis from 2018, the BOLD database covered only about 4% of freshwater invertebrates from Slovakia).

ZOOBenthos

Fish

Zooplankton

Macrophytes

Authors of pictures: Matej Žiak, Fedor Čiampor, Zuzana Čiamporová-Zaťovičová, Tomáš Čejka

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