Rockefeller University

Program for the Human Environment

The Barcode Blog

A mostly scientific blog about short DNA sequences for species identification and discovery. I encourage your commentary. -- Mark Stoeckle

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DNA for tardigrades

tardigrade01Tardigrades, commonly called water bears, are tiny (0.1-1.5 mm) water-dwelling invertebrates found in diverse environments. About 1000 species are known. Morphologic identification is difficult and may be limited to certain life stages–some species can be identified only from eggs, for example. Tardigrades can transform into a dormant state with remarkable ability to withstand extreme drying, cold, and radiation for prolonged periods, making them of interest for persons studying biology of tissue repair, aging and other fields.

Tardigrade Barcoding Project has just launched their website at www.tardigradebarcoding.org. The project will “provide a set of indispensible tools for the identification of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial tardigrade species, and will greatly aid taxonomists and ecologists. It will also enhance understanding on the evolution, ecology, life-history and extraordinary tolerance of physical extremes for these animals.” I add that COI barcodes are likely to reveal great genetic diversity hidden within morphologically defined species (eg Blaxter et al 2003).

I look forward to learning more about tardigrades!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 1:43 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “DNA for tardigrades”

  1. rachel barrett Says:
    August 26th, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    I think these tardigrades might be able to help with understanding of extrodinary tolerance fo physical extremes but thats about it. I need more proof, I dont believe these water bears can give understanding to evolution.

  2. Halldis Ringvold Says:
    September 7th, 2016 at 9:07 am

    Hi
    When barcoding tardigrades, how many specimens do you need of each species in order to get the right mass for the kit? Is 20-30 specimens enough, or do you need like 100 or more? Say a specimen which is about 2-300 mikrometer long.

    Kind regards, Halldis Ringvold

Contact: mark.stoeckle@rockefeller.edu

About this site

This web site is an outgrowth of the Taxonomy, DNA, and Barcode of Life meeting held at Banbury Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, September 9-12, 2003. It is designed and managed by Mark Stoeckle, Perrin Meyer, and Jason Yung at the Program for the Human Environment (PHE) at The Rockefeller University.

About the Program for the Human Environment

The involvement of the Program for the Human Environment in DNA barcoding dates to Jesse Ausubel's attendance in February 2002 at a conference in Nova Scotia organized by the Canadian Center for Marine Biodiversity. At the conference, Paul Hebert presented for the first time his concept of large-scale DNA barcoding for species identification. Impressed by the potential for this technology to address difficult challenges in the Census of Marine Life, Jesse agreed with Paul on encouraging a conference to explore the contribution taxonomy and DNA could make to the Census as well as other large-scale terrestrial efforts. In his capacity as a Program Director of the Sloan Foundation, Jesse turned to the Banbury Conference Center of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, whose leader Jan Witkowski prepared a strong proposal to explore both the scientific reliability of barcoding and the processes that might bring it to broad application. Concurrently, PHE researcher Mark Stoeckle began to work with the Hebert lab on analytic studies of barcoding in birds. Our involvement in barcoding now takes 3 forms: assisting the organizational development of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life and the Barcode of Life Initiative; contributing to the scientific development of the field, especially by studies in birds, and contributing to public understanding of the science and technology of barcoding and its applications through improved visualization techniques and preparation of brochures and other broadly accessible means, including this website. While the Sloan Foundation continues to support CBOL through a grant to the Smithsonian Institution, it does not provide financial support for barcoding research itself or support to the PHE for its research in this field.