为了对特殊身份的物种或品种进行保护、检测转基因生物，以及追踪生物的扩散，对所采集生物样本的来源物种进行准确地识别是非常必要的。简而言之，条形码物种鉴定技术即通过大范围地对一个或多个参考基因进行筛选，从而达到将未知个体归属于某个分类单元的目的，其使用通用的PCR引物对物种特异性的DNA条形码识别区进行扩增，将扩增产物的测序结果与数据库进行比较即可确定物种的身份。此项技术的推广尚面临2个关键问题：①如何进一步使用和分析DNA条形码数据；②如何建立起DNA条形码与经典分类方法之间的关联。本文结合上述问题对DNA条形码技术的原理和应用进行了综述。

The identification of biological samples is a contributing factor in the recognition and protection of identity preserved species, detection of transgenic species and tracing of biological dispersal. The "barcode"identification technique, which uses the universal PCR primers to recognize the target sequences in unknown samples, recognizes a species identity by comparing its barcode DNA sequences to databases. Two major issues ought to be clarified before its extensive use in taxonomy and species delimitation: ① How to analyze and use DNA data? Currently, the tree building methods are commonly used to place certain DNA sequences into a taxonomic context; ② How to find the relevance between barcode and traditional taxonomic methods in order to make the barcode technique accepted by the taxonomic community? The principles and applications of DNA barcode are reviewed in this paper.

国家自然科学基金面上项目（30672624）：电泳和mtDNA技术在燕窝鉴别中的应用，负责人：赖小平。