Short report

Molecular species identification boosts bat diversity

Frieder Mayer¹ , Christian Dietz² and Andreas Kiefer³

¹  University of Erlangen; Department of Zoology; Staudtstrasse 5; D-91058 Erlangen; Germany

²  University of Tübingen; Department of Animal Physiology; Auf der Morgenstelle 28; D-72076 Tübingen; Germany

³  University of Mainz; Department of Zoology; Becherweg 13; D-55099 Mainz; Germany

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Frontiers in Zoology 2007, 4:4doi:10.1186/1742-9994-4-4

Published:	12 February 2007

Abstract

The lack of obvious morphological differences between species impedes the identification of species in many groups of organisms. Meanwhile, DNA-based approaches are increasingly used to survey biological diversity. In this study we show that sequencing the mitochondrial protein-coding gene NADH dehydrogenase, subunit 1 (nd1) from 534 bats of the Western Palaearctic region corroborates the promise of DNA barcodes in two major respects. First, species described with classical taxonomic tools can be genetically identified with only a few exceptions. Second, substantial sequence divergence suggests an unexpected high number of undiscovered species.