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COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I)

Definition

The 648 bp mitochondrial gene region proposed by Paul Hebert in 2003 as the universal barcode locus. Its combination of interspecific variation and intraspecific conservation makes it suitable for identifying most animal species from a small sequence read.

Related terms

BOLD Systems
Barcode of Life Data System (University of Guelph, Canada). Holds over 9 million COI reference barcodes linked to voucher specimens, with mandatory...
DNA barcode
A short, standardised sequence from a defined locus used to identify a specimen to species by comparison against a curated reference library....
ElePhant database
A curated STR reference database for African savanna and forest elephants and Asian elephants, used to assign ivory to individual animals or...
Minibarcode
A 100-200 bp sub-region of the COI locus amplified when DNA is too degraded for the full 648 bp amplicon. Shorter target...
STR (short tandem repeat)
A genomic locus where a 2, 7 base-pair unit is repeated in tandem a variable number of times between individuals. The variation...

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