The Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE) at the University of Delhi is taking up an ambitious project that can pitchfork research into the amphibian diversity of the Western Ghats onto a higher plane. The region is considered one of the hottest biodiversity hotspots in the world. The project, supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology, envisages developing DNA barcodes for the amphibian fauna of the Western Ghats, according to eminent frog scientist S.D. Biju, a reader at the CEMDE. With the development of the DNA barcode system, identification of new species of amphibians from this region will become easier, thereby opening doors to unknown information about the amphibian diversity of this region. Dr. Biju, who is the chief investigator for the project, had shot into international fame in 2003 with the discovery of Nasikabatrachus sahydrensis, a new species of frog belonging to a new family, which he and a Brussels-based evolutionary geneticist Franky Bossuyt had reported in the science journal Nature. Biologists worldwide had described that event as a "special, one-in-a-century find" because the previous discovery of a new family of frogs was way back in 1926.
One reason for the tardy progress of research in the subject in India has been the lack of initiative to develop quick and testable hypothesis-driven methods to screen species diversity and identify putative new species requiring description. The project for developing DNA barcodes for the Western Ghats amphibians, to be completed in three years with the involvement of more researchers and institutions working in the field, will help identify centres of endemism and establish the conservation status of amphibian species in the Western Ghats, Dr. Biju told The Hindu.
(The Hindu, 3rd September 2007)
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