DNA Barcoding: Perspectives from a “Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy” (PEET) Debate

Responding to a decade of scientific and political discussion during the 1980s, the United States, under the auspices of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), initiated a series of programs that would directly impact taxonomic research. The Biotic Surveys and Inventories program and PEET (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) were the first of several program announcements of particular relevance. Of these, PEET warrants particular attention, because it has been championed by some as a model for the future of taxonomic research (Rodman and Cody, 2003). Focusing on training and building electronic infrastructure in the context of taxonomic revisions and monographs, PEET provided a vital infusion of cash into a field of research that had been starved of resources. Crucially, PEET along with related programs supporting systematic biology, gave United States–based institutions the confidence to hire permanent staff to support these efforts. Almost a decade on from the first PEET awards, Rodman and Cody (2003) proclaimed that the “taxonomic impediment” (Taylor, 1983) had been overcome, advocating PEET and related programs as a model to redress the recent global decline of taxonomic research. Yet despite PEET and a handful of similar initiatives worldwide, many of the underlying problems for taxonomic research programs persist (Godfray and Knapp, 2004), and an increasingly vocal group of taxonomists are not shy in pointing this out. The pace of change in the molecular and phylogenetic communities is so fast that traditional taxonomic practice is struggling to keep up. From the inception of the GenBank genetic database back in 1982 until the close of 2004, over 40 million genetic sequences for 125,063 species have been deposited (NCBI, 2005). Of these, about 90% of the sequences have been added in the last 5 years. By contrast, circa 1.7 million species have been described by traditional taxonomic means to date, and at present rates this list is accruing about 10,000 additional taxa per year Urbach, P. 1991. Bayesian methodology: Some criticisms answered. Ratio (New Series) IV:170–184.