Jarrett Phillips

University of Guelph | UOGuelph · Department of Integrative Biology

DNA barcoding has greatly accelerated the pace of specimen identification to the species level, as well as species delineation. Whereas the application of DNA barcoding to the matching of unknown specimens to known species is straightforward, its use for species delimitation is more controversial, as species discovery hinges critically on present l...

Assessing levels of standing genetic variation within species requires a robust sampling for the purpose of accurate specimen identification using molecular techniques such as DNA barcoding; however, statistical estimators for what constitutes a robust sample are currently lacking. Moreover, such estimates are needed because most species are curren...

DNA barcoding has been largely successful in satisfactorily exposing levels of standing genetic diversity for a wide range of taxonomic groups through the employment of only one or a few universal gene markers. However, sufficient coverage of geographically-broad intra-specific haplotype variation within genomic databases like the Barcode of Life D...

Here, we introduce VLF , an R package to determine the distribution of very low frequency variants (VLFs) in nucleotide and amino acid sequences for the analysis of errors in DNA sequence records. The package allows users to assess VLFs in aligned and trimmed protein-coding sequences by automatically calculating the frequency of nucleotides or amin...

Seafood misrepresentation, encompassing product adulteration, mislabelling, and substitution, among other fraudulent practices, has been rising globally over the past decade, greatly impacting both the loss of important fish species and the behaviour of human consumers alike. While much effort has been spent attempting to localise the extent of sea...

DNA sequences are increasingly used for large-scale biodiversity inventories. Because these genetic data avoid the time-consuming initial sorting of specimens based on their phenotypic attributes, they have been recently incorporated into taxonomic workflows for overlooked and diverse taxa. Major statistical developments have accompanied this new p...

DNA barcoding has largely established itself as a mainstay for rapid molecular taxonomic identification in both academic and applied research. The use of DNA barcoding as a molecular identification method depends on a “DNA barcode gap”—the separation between the maximum within-species difference and the minimum between-species difference. Previous...

The estimation of the Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) requires the integration of multidisciplinary models: economic, statistical, mathematical, and conceptual. The output of one model often serves as input for another; therefore, consistency of the model components is critical. The GBADs Informatics team aims to strengthen the scientific...

Although the butterflies of North America have received considerable taxonomic attention, overlooked species and instances of hybridization continue to be revealed. The present study assembles a DNA barcode reference library for this fauna to identify groups whose patterns of sequence variation suggest the need for further taxonomic study. Based on...

A new R package implementing a novel optimization method of estimating intraspecific sample sizes from haplotype accumulation curves can be found at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/HACSim/index.html This work will be presented at the 8th International Barcode of Life (iBOL) Conference in Trondheim, Norway from June 17-20, 2019. A manusc...

Estimating appropriate sample sizes to measure species abundance and richness is a fundamental problem for most biodiversity research. In this study, we explore a method to measure sampling sufficiency based on haplotype diversity in the ray-finned fishes (Animalia: Chordata: Actinopterygii). To do this, we use linear regression and hypothesis test...