Toward the DNA Library of Life

The special set of papers entitled “DNA Library of Life” constitutes an outcome of the project “Bibliothèque du vivant” (BdV), which aims to promote the molecular taxonomy of eukaryotes by offering research teams the possibility to produce and manage a molecular library linked to specimens deposited in natural history museums. The project was funded by three French institutions (the CNRS, INRA and MNHN), and provided access to the sequencing power of the Genoscope for 105 teams between 2011 and 2013. It was subsequently supported by the CNRS through the “Groupement de Recherche Génomique Environnementale”. The scientific objectives of this programme were threefold: 1) species delimitation among species complexes; 2) phylogenetic reconstruction (including phylogenomics); and 3) metabarcoding and improving NGS methods for systematic purposes. Within the present collection, 19 papers contribute to these objectives across a large taxonomic range and a worldwide geographic coverage. These papers propose taxonomic novelties (22 new species and 3 new genera) in both animal and plant taxa.