The Fish Barcode of Life Initiative (FISH-BOL) is a global effort to coordinate the assembly of a standardised genetic reference library of 'barcodes' of all fish species that is derived from voucher specimens with authoritative taxonomic identifications. A barcode is the gene sequence of a portion of the mitochondrial COI gene. The objectives of barcoding fishes are to:
•facilitate species identification for all potential users, including taxonomists;
•highlight specimens that represent range-expansions;
•flag previously unrecognised species;
•enable identifications to be made where traditional methods are not applicable.
SAIAB has been identified as an institution that can champion barcoding of African fishes, and Ernst Swartz and Monica Mwale are the chairs of FISH-BOL in Africa. To facilitate barcoding of African fishes, SAIAB has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (CCDB) at the University of Guelph and is a member organization of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL).
The objectives of African Fish-BOL are to:
•barcode all Africa’s marine, estuarine and freshwater fishes;
•assist taxonomists in identifying fish species;
•understand lineage diversity;
•test and improve the quality of tissues in SAIAB’s biomaterial bank.
Current Projects
Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean
Inland fishes of Angola
Freshwater fishes of southern Africa
Fishes of South Africa
Fishes of the sub-Antarctic region
For more information contact: Dr Ernst Swartz or Monica Mwale