Species identification through DNA barcodes

How many species are there in Lebanon?

This simple question is often asked yet hard to be answered. Different existing methods are used to try to answer this question and to evaluate the species richness of a geographical region such as species inventories and monitoring.

The number of species that have been described in Lebanon until now using morphological description by taxonomic specialists is around 9,116 species in total, including 4,486 fauna species and 4,630 flora species.

Due to difficulties in morphological identification and taxonomic uncertainty especially in complex biodiversity areas, the integration of additional tools like species genetic identification by DNA barcoding analysis is now needed in any project to improve the accuracy of species inventory.
By comparing a small DNA sequence of a specimen to a publicly available DNA sequence reference library like the BOLD database and Genbank database, this technique allows us to determine the identity of the organism.

Knowing that biodiversity assessments in the eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) are relatively scarce, the construction of a reference library of DNA sequences for this region’s biodiversity is essential.
In the context of a project led by the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, in collaboration with Jouzour Loubnan members and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, we created the first reference library of standard DNA markers for mammals and plants in the EMR using plant leaves collected from different Lebanese nature reserves and roads kills samples, and also by using historical DNA extracted from taxidermized mammal specimens collected from the Museum of Birds, Mammals and Butterflies of Qobayat and the private collections of Mr. Fadi Nejmeh in Keserwan.

Author: Liliane Boukhdoud Ph.D. student

References: Boukhdoud L, Saliba C, Parker LD, Rotzel McInerney N, Ishak Mouawad G, Kharrat M, Kahale R, Chahine T, Maldonado JE, Bou Dagher-Kharrat M. First DNA sequence reference library for mammals and plants of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Genome.
2021 Jan; 64(1):39-49. DOI: 10.1139/gen-2019-0194