BUENOS AIRES -- Being part of a global effort to build a
digital library with the DNA of the world's species, Argentina has made
significant headway, a local museum director said on Friday.
The ambitious project, called the International Barcode of Life, or
iBOL, has involved 26 countries and hopes to "gather DNA barcodes from
five million specimens, representing at least 500,000 species," according
to the initiative's website.
Pablo Tubaro is an ornithologist by training. He also heads the Argentina's
Bernardino Rivadavia Museum of Natural Sciences in central Buenos Aires.
"Since 2004, the museum has been working on the international
project, which aims to create reference libraries with the genetic sequences
that will allow us to identify all of the species on the planet," he told
Xinhua.
Members of the Latin American nation's National Council for Scientific
and Technical Research are also taking part in the project.
In Latin America, countries such as "Argentina, Brazil and Mexico
serve as regional nodes of the project, developing reference libraries for
regional specimens and helping other countries in the region to do the
same," said Tubaro.
"Among the so-called central nodes (of the project) are Canada,
where the initiative began, the United States, European Union and China. These
central countries are the ones with the most technological development and
capacity for analysis," he added.
The project's website says the library will have wide-ranging
applications in "pest and disease control, food production and safety,
resource management, conservation, research, education and recreation."
(Xinhua)
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