PORBIOTA provides a platform for reference collections of DNA barcodes of animal and plant species occurring in Portugal. DNA barcodes are mainly based on the CO1 gene for animals, while for plants several genes are used.
The existence of a reference collection of DNA sequences is a crucial step for the successful development of molecular monitoring programs, as it is necessary to correctly assign the sequences generated by DNA metabarcoding to taxonomic entities.
At present, PORBIOTA DNA barcode data is primarily made available through international platforms such as GenBank and BOLD. Currently, PORBIOTA has made available through IBI, the InBIO Barcoding Initiative, DNA barcodes of 4,712 specimens and 2,005 species that match to 2,166 different BINs in the BOLD platform.