Advent of Molecular Taxonomy and its Application

Abstract

Taxonomic classification of species requires a stable approach incorporating adaptive diversity and evolutionary change in species. Classification based on Species Concept which are too broad or too narrow both present problems in terms of outbreeding and inbreeding depression respectively. In recent years many cases of designating sub-species the species status have been reported owing to the fame of Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC) in taxonomic community. Similarly many studies based on advance molecular techniques have reflected the underestimation of diversity in mammals and many cryptic species. It is therefore highly recommended that an integrative approach should be adopted involving genetic datasets from multiple loci along with sound morphological and behavioural data while designating new species status to overcome the problems of taxonomic inflation and exploring the hidden diversity among cryptic species. Use of new molecular techniques e.g. DNA bar coding has shown great potential in the field of taxonomic research, population genetics and phylogenetics but it is not completely comparable with comprehensive taxonomic analysis so data must be derived from sequence information based on different genomic regions for accurate interpretation of results. In addition to that algorithmic approach integrating key population genetic parameters should be involved to investigate modes of speciation in different groups of organisms.