DNA Barcoding for Plant Specimen Identification

DNA barcoding comprises two distinct aims: specimen identification and species discovery. To achieve these goals,a DNA barcode reference library is indispensable and is currently under construction for Chinese plants. In this paper,we used the existing public database,NCBI,and also our DNA barcode reference library,which is under construction,to identify plant specimens. By combining DNA barcode sequences with scientific names deter-mined by taxonomists,we first attempted to find incorrectly identified specimens and also to check specimens whose DNA sequences were wrongly labeled. Secondly,we attempted the identification of unknown specimens in some groups for which DNA barcodes are available. Thirdly,we make some suggestions for the development of a plant DNA barcode reference library.