DNA barcoding uses short, standardised genetic markers to identify organisms to species level. Just as a supermarket barcode identifies a product, a DNA barcode identifies a species. Here's the process.
A tiny piece of tissue (~5mm) goes into a tube with ethanol preservative. For fungi, we recommend inner stipe tissue to avoid surface contaminants. Photograph the specimen first — morphology helps confirm the molecular ID.
We break open cells using our Extract-N-Amp protocol — a fast alkaline lysis that releases DNA from the tissue. The extracted DNA is diluted and ready for amplification.
Using specific primers (e.g. ITS1-F and ITS4 for fungi), we make billions of copies of the barcode region via PCR. A gel electrophoresis check confirms we got a clean product.
The amplified DNA is sent to AGRF for Sanger sequencing. Fluorescent dye terminators generate a chromatogram — the raw signal that becomes your DNA sequence.
We trim low-quality ends, assemble forward and reverse reads, then BLAST against curated databases (UNITE for fungi, GenBank, BOLD) to find the closest matching species.
You receive a detailed HTML report with species identification, confidence level, chromatogram trace, phylogenetic tree, BLAST hits, and the story behind your organism.