Low resolution of mitochondrial COI barcodes for identifying species of the genus Larus (Charadriiformes: Laridae)

Abstract

We evaluated whether cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcodes that have been previously suggested for birds are useful for identifying species of the genus Larus, which are resident or migratory birds in Korea. We found 31 intra- or interspecific COI haplotypes from 12 of 13 Larus species in Korea. Haplotype analyses showed that the COI barcodes could not distinguish some interspecific haplotypes from 6 of 12 Larus species because there were no nucleotide substitutions among their COI haplotypes. The neighbor-joining tree formed shallow branches in the clades expected for L. saundersi, L. crassirostris, L. canus, L relictus, and L. ridbundus. In the nine Larus species, COI haplotypes were not grouped as distinct entities that were correctly assigned to their corresponding species, resulting in polytypic clades. These results indicate that the COI sequences need to be cautiously selected as a DNA barcode for identifying species of Korean Larus birds.

Keywords::

• DNA barcode
• Larus
• species identification
• molecular marker

Acknowledgements

This study was carried out with the support of “Forest Science & Technology Projects (Project No. S211011L020110)” provided by Korea Forest Service and the Ewha Global Top 5 Grant 2011 of Ewha Womans University.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper and the Ewha Global Top 5 Grant 2011 of Ewha Womans University.