Store DNA from plants around the world

New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its blooming flowers, but garden researchers are working hard to capture DNA from thousands of plants around the world.

The Bronx garden is hosting this week's meeting and participants from many different countries will lay the groundwork for the cataloging of a vast part of the Earth's vast biodiversity within two years. how to proceed

The project is called TreeBOL (Tree Barcode of Life). As in a similar project being carried out focusing on fish species in the world, participants will collect genetic material from plants around the world.

A slice of DNA will be used to make the bar code, similar to how a grocery store product is projected to calculate the price. But with plants and animals, the scanner will look at the specific sequence of four basic fusion blocks of DNA to identify the species.

The database will help identify many plants that exist in the world, where they live and whether they are in extinction. These results are very important for environmental conservation and protection as the population grows.

This job is very big. Plants account for 25% of all plants and an estimated 100,000 species. Participants come from countries like South America, India and the United States.

In order for the database to be useful, a similar DNA slice must be used in all samples to be able to compare species with each other. Part of the work at this week's meeting is to determine which slices to use, as well as identify logistical issues between more than 40 participating organizations.

The garden has received a grant of nearly $ 600,000 to coordinate the project. While it will take another two years for the genome database to be completed, the team will visit certain areas for research. - like plants in East North America and regions in Malaysia, India and South Africa, as well as endangered plants - during that time.