jMOTU and Taxonerator: Tools for DNA Barcode Analysis
Author Information
Author(s): Jones Martin, Ghoorah Anisah, Blaxter Mark
Primary Institution: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
Hypothesis
User-friendly tools are required for clustering DNA sequences into operational taxonomic units (MOTU) and associating these with known taxonomies.
Conclusion
jMOTU efficiently identifies molecular taxa in survey datasets, while Taxonerator adds taxonomic annotations to these MOTU.
Supporting Evidence
- jMOTU can analyze tens of thousands of sequences quickly on a desktop computer.
- Taxonerator adds traditional taxonomic annotations to the MOTU.
- The study demonstrates the utility of jMOTU in analyzing both individual specimen-based and bulk-environment datasets.
Takeaway
This study introduces two computer programs that help scientists group DNA sequences into categories and label them with names, making it easier to study biodiversity.
Methodology
The study used jMOTU for clustering DNA sequences and Taxonerator for taxonomic annotation, analyzing datasets from Sanger sequencing and Roche 454 pyrosequencing.
Potential Biases
Potential sequencing errors may inflate diversity estimates.
Limitations
The software is currently unsuitable for single-pass analysis of very large datasets exceeding approximately 10,000 unique sequences.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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