DNA bar code for every animal.

[Guest guest]

New frontier for DNA team: A bar code for every animal TheStar.com - Science - New frontier for DNA team: A bar code for every animal University of Guelph scientists develop identifiers to begin catalogue of all species September 15, 2007 [This includes us humans too I suppose. The human chip is already a reality. Only public opinion is against it. It will be pushed through in the US anyway. Otherwise how can they "promptly" treat the patients? - Jagannath] Megan OgilvieHealth Reporter http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Science/article/256975 Step into a forest in southern Ontario and a dizzying array of diversity pummels the senses: ferns line a stream, songbirds flit overhead, lichen pepper a tree stump, a mosquito finds the soft flesh on your arm. Unless you have a degree in taxonomy, identifying all of the flora and fauna is an insurmountable task. University of

Guelph scientists hope to change that using something retail stores have relied on for years: bar codes. Researchers at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario are starting to assign a unique DNA identifier in the form of a genetic bar code to every animal species on the planet. They are not alone in their quest. Since the idea was first published in 2003 by University of Guelph professor Paul Hebert, DNA bar coding has been adopted by 160 organizations in 50 countries and more than 31,000 species have been coded. Experts believe it has a host of applications, from catching agricultural pests at the border to quickly identifying disease-carrying mosquitos. It will help researchers discover species and trace evolutionary patterns, says David Schindel, executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and host of next

week's second international Barcode of Life conference in Taipei. Scientists are bar-coding as many species as possible in an effort to create a global reference library, says Schindel. Much like a fingerprint database, DNA bar-coding only works if there is a comprehensive catalogue from which to compare samples. Barcoding will soon allow scientists to quickly identify hard-to-distinguish species within hours, rather than days. Taxonomists usually use physical characteristics, such as colour markings, to classify an animal. But that won't always work; scientists may only have a small piece of an organism to work with. When dead birds carrying avian flu washed up on the shores of Scotland, it took weeks to identify the species as swans because they were so decomposed, Schindel says. "If we could have bar-coded the species, we would have

known what they were within a day and, possibly, where they came from," he says. "It would have been a big help for public health officials." Hebert, who holds a Canada Research Chair in molecular biology, had long thought DNA could be used to identify species. Scanning an animal's entire genome would cost too much and take too long, so he pinpointed a short piece of DNA – a section of a gene called cytochrome c oxidase 1, or CO1 – that could distinguish one animal from an other. It was a successful hunch, though it can't be used for plants. "The results of the first wave of studies have been so positive that the plan to bar code all life is simply irresistible," Hebert wrote in an email while travelling in Korea. He believes 500,000 animal species will be bar-coded within five years. The Biodiversity

Institute of Ontario, which opened in May, houses the world's leading DNA bar-code facility. Robert Hanner, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph and co-ordinator of the Fish Barcode of Life Campaign, says the lab is able to code between 12,000 and 20,000 samples a month, for $2 a sample. Agricultural groups have approached them to bar-code insects that affect Ontario crops, he says. Critics say DNA bar-coding isn't nearly as accurate as promised. Felix Sperling, a biology professor at the University of Alberta, points out bar coding seems to work best for identifying species, such as birds, that are easy to distinguish by physical characteristics. It does not work as well for other plant and animal groups, such as lichen, fungi and parasitic insects, he adds. That doesn't bother Spencer Barrett, a

University of Toronto professor of evolutionary biology, who is looking for a piece of DNA that can be used to distinguish plant species. "The next big frontier, the next big scientific question, is to identify all of the biodiversity on Earth," he says, noting only 1.7 million species have been named of some 20 million to 30 million species. "In conclusion, vaccines are a perfect manifestation of everything that is satanic. They represent an adulterous and arrogant tampering with divine creation, based on the intellectual conceit of "perfecting" creation. They are poisonous, containing derivatives from metals such as mercury and aluminum, and from formaldehyde. They are made from the cell lines and viruses of biblically unclean animals such as monkeys, cats, etc.

Worst of all, they are made from the cell lines of premeditatedly murdered children. " Bob Sperlazzo Christian Digest 11/29/2002

Catch up on fall's hot new shows on TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more!