Plant Diversity ›› 2012, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (6): 539-545.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1143.2012.12149

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

 YANG  Xiang-Yun, CA  Jie, ZHANG  Ting, DU  Yan   

  1. Germplasm Bank of Wild Species in Southwest China, Kunming Institute of Botany,
    Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China
  • Received:2012-11-08 Online:2012-12-25 Published:2012-11-13

Abstract:

Plant diversity is the key element of ecosystem, and plays an important role in our daily life and socioeconomic prosperity. Preservation and utilization of plant diversity is the cornerstone of human welfare and civilization, and an essential strategy to address global climate change. Although the plant conservation activities have been achieved significantly in the past decades world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’s strategy for plant conservation, which could be removed with the conceiving and implementation of the nextgeneration Flora, or iFlora project. DNA barcoding is an important element of iFlora. We brief the application of plant DNA barcoding to accurately identify species in the bryophyte genus Herbertus and in a number of genera of seed plants, such as Ficus, Pedicularis, Tacca, Taxus and Trichoshanthes.

Key words: Plant diversity, Plant germplasm, Conservation and utilization, DNA barcoding, iFlora

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