Data from: Microfluidic Enrichment Barcoding (MEBarcoding): a new method for high throughput plant DNA barcoding

DNA barcoding has become a valuable tool to support species identification
with a broad range of applications in fields such as traditional taxonomy,
ecology, forensics, food analysis, and environmental science. We introduce
Microfluidics Enrichment Barcoding (MEBarcoding) for plant DNA Barcoding,
a cost-effective method for high throughput DNA barcoding. MEBarcoding
uses the Fluidigm Access Array™ to simultaneously amplify targeted regions
for 48 DNA samples and hundreds of PCR primer pairs (a total of 23,040 PCR
products) during a single thermal cycling protocol. A second generation
instrument from Fluidigm, called the Juno™, can accommodate 192 DNA
samples simultaneously. As a proof of concept, we developed a microfluidic
PCR workflow using the Fluidigm Access Array™ and Illumina MiSeq to
generate new sequences from 96 samples for each of the four primary DNA
barcode loci in plants: rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA, and ITS (384 total
sequences). This workflow was used to build a reference library that
includes 78 families and 96 genera from all major plant lineages,
including bryophytes, ferns and lycophytes, gymnosperms, and all major
groups of angiosperms, which are currently lacking in public databases.
Our results demonstrate that this technique offers a highly efficient
alternative method to traditional PCR and Sanger sequencing by increasing
the estimated number of plant DNA barcodes that can be sequenced by a
single technician in one week by 800%, at a reduced cost, and by
generating a barcode library with a more comprehensive taxonomic coverage.