Karl Kjer is an award-winning molecular phylogeneticist and
taxonomist with decades of experience and an overwhelmingly-positive
reputation. He’s a co-founder of the 1,000
Insect Transcriptome Evolution Project and molecular taxonomy is among the
many areas that he’s passionate about.
“Molecular taxonomy is
still a developing field, and I am working to develop solutions to the
limitations of molecular species definitions that will be broadly applicable to
other taxa,” wrote Karl Kjer. “Barcodes
are increasingly used in molecular taxonomy, and in this context, a barcode
refers to a standardized DNA fragment that is used to identify species. For
animals, a 658-nucleotide fragment of mitochondrial COI is the most commonly
used marker. There has been vigorous, often contentious, debate about the
strengths and weaknesses of "barcodes" and the effects these data
will have on traditional taxonomic practice. I reject the extremes of both
sides of these debates and instead present a constructive, integrative approach
to discovering and describing biodiversity, using Trichoptera as a model taxon.
For those who’d like to read more, head to
Karl Kjer’s editing
page at karlkjer.com, and his "
Academia" website to check
out some of his most popular, highly-cited works. He also spends time answering
questions on
Stackexchange.
