Abstract
DNA barcoding is a molecular technology that allows the identification of any biological species by amplifying, sequencing and querying the information from genic and/or intergenic standardized target regions belonging to the extranuclear genomes. Although these sequences represent a small fraction of the total DNA of a cell, both chloroplast and mitochondrial barcodes chosen for identifying plant and animal species, respectively, have shown sufficient nucleotide diversity to assess the taxonomic identity of the vast majority of organisms used in agriculture. Consequently, cpDNA and mtDNA barcoding protocols are being used more and more in the food industry and food supply chains for food labeling, not only to support food safety but also to uncover food piracy in freshly commercialized and technologically processed products. Since the extranuclear genomes are present in many copies within each cell, this technology is being more easily exploited to recover information even in degraded samples or transformed materials deriving from crop varieties and livestock species. The strong standardization that characterizes protocols used worldwide for DNA barcoding makes this technology particularly suitable for routine analyses required by agencies to safeguard food safety and quality. Here we conduct a critical review of the potentials of DNA barcoding for food labeling along with the main findings in the area of food piracy, with particular reference to agrifood and livestock foodstuffs.
Highlights
DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker from a standard part of the genome of an organism’s DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular individual, breed/cultivar, or species
It represents an essential tool to vouch for quality controls of food products, to guarantee food traceability, to safeguard public health, to minimize food piracy, and to valorize local and typical agro-food production systems
DNA barcoding is based on the amplification of short DNA fragments belonging to the mitochondrial or chloroplast genomes, which are conserved at the species levels and preserved in most of the processed food products, showing these advantages as compared to other DNA fingerprinting and genotyping approaches
Summary
DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker from a standard part of the genome of an organism’s DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular individual, breed/cultivar, or species. DNA barcoding involves sequencing short segments of the chloroplast or mitochondrial genome and comparing the results with orthologous reference sequences available in public database such as BOLD (www.boldsystem.org) and GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank) This approach is based on the analysis of the nucleotide variability existing within standard regions of the genome that are informative for the identification of species. The experimental procedure of extracting genomic DNA and amplifying specific DNA markers is technically easy and usually does not require the destruction of the sample, which sometime needs to be safeguarded for further uses or inspections It allows the treatment of all kinds of biological specimens, including those non-identifiable by morphology, and it is very fast and relatively inexpensive compared with other molecular approaches. This region is straightforward to amplify among land plants and shows high variability across intergenic spacers in plants, even among closely related taxa [13,14]
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