​The first public release of data from the HelmBank project is now live with Release R1. This release provides a new set of voucher-linked parasite DNA barcode records designed to improve how helminths are detected and identified from wildlife. This release adds 45 barcodes from 20 newly sequenced specimens with data for the markers COI, 16S, and ITS. Release R1 is part of a larger, growing, and actively curated collection of parasite specimens from wildlife. It currently focuses on the helminth parasites of Neotropical mammals, but coverage is quickly expanding to include a broader array of host taxa.

Featured Software from the Kartzinel Lab: Geographic Coverage of DNA Barcodes. The inaugural code repository to be highlighted in our Featured Software section of the Software & Data page presents the Quarto Code Book published in association with our Molecular Ecology Review Paper, "Global Availability of Plant DNA Barcodes as Genomic Resources to Support Basic and Policy-Relevant Biodiversity Research" can be easily modified to evaluate the geographic coverage of other data sets. Although the featured code emphasizes geographic coverage from our work in Yellowstone National Park...

Over the past couple of years, a lot of things have changed. Some changes have improved how we share the software and data that we generate in the lab, necessitated in part by the growing popularity of our work. We recognized a substantial benefit to enhancing our commitment to providing easy access and open-source principles and therefore made it easier to find and access our most in-demand repositories across a variety of platforms that include GitHub, Zenodo, NCBI, BOLD, etc. You can now easily find links with descriptions from our main Software & Data landing page. Check it out!

For more than 13 years, we have built and maintained a plant DNA Barcode library for the flora of Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. Many versions have been released, the most substantial of which was associated withe 2019 publication of the Plant DNA-barcode library and community phylogeny for a semi-arid East African savanna in Molecular Ecology. This post is intended to help you track significant developments in this long-term collaborative effort and find the most current version to use in your analyses.