Barcode regions
Standard regions include chloroplast rbcL, matK, and nuclear ITS for many plant groups. No single barcode works for all species equally.
Applications
- Identify morphologically similar species
- Detect mislabeled commercial plant products
- Environmental DNA (eDNA) from soil or water samples
Limitations
Hybridization, incomplete lineage sorting, and low variation in some genera require multi-locus or genomic approaches.