Network of European Leading Laboratories (NELL), Utrecht, The Netherlands, 13-14 April 2010

 

Representatives of ten major European laboratories active in DNA barcoding got together on 13-14 April 2010 to discuss the practical aspects of producing DNA barcodes in Europe. During these two days, around 25 researchers and research-representatives exchanged their experiences and knowledge in order to improve the production of DNA barcodes in Europe. The meeting organised by the European Consortium for the Barcode of Life (ECBOL) in collaboration with the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), was held at the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre (CBS), Utrecht, The Netherlands.

 

Experts from DNA Barcoding laboratories in the Smithsonian (Lee Weigt), the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario in Guelph (Evgeny Zakharov, Riadul Mannan), CBOL (David Schindel) and the CBS (Vincent Roberts) presented several lectures covering topics ranging from equipment, staffing, specimen conservation, tissue preparation to Bio-banking and next-generation sequencing.

The objective of the meeting was to develop and reinforce European pipelines for DNA barcoding. The main issues discussed were the identification of possible problems and how to resolve these problems in the DNA barcoding workflow. Knowledge and expertise were shared for most of the steps in the laboratory process that included tissue sampling and preparation, sequencing, data integration and bio-banking.

 

The data pipeline, with a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), linking metadata to the barcode of Life Database in Guelph and in Europe, as well as GenBank, was also discussed in detail. Representatives of Life Technologies (formerly ABI) presented the latest sequencing platforms and developments, all focused on streamlining the DNA barcoding pipeline to facilitate a higher barcode production in the various leading labs that constitute NELL. The meeting was wrapped up with several concrete decisions and advice as how to optimise barcoding pipelines in various European laboratories.

 

A schematic representation of a LIMS.