Estimating sample sizes for DNA barcoding

Abstract

Sample size has long been one of the basic issues since the start of the DNA barcoding initiative and the global biodiversity investigation. As a contribution to resolving this problem, we propose a simple resampling approach to estimate several key sampling sizes for a DNA barcoding project. We illustrate our approach using both structured populations simulated under coalescent and real species of skipper butterflies. We found that sample sizes widely used in DNA barcoding are insufficient to assess the genetic diversity of a species, population structure impacts the estimation of the sample sizes, and hence will bias the species identification potentially.