Tag: iBOL

First Bulgarian DNA barcoding symposium brought over 120 researchers

The symposium took place on 5 December 2025 at the Headquarters of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, organised by the Bulgarian Barcode of Life.

The first national symposium on DNA barcoding took place on 5 December 2025 at the Headquarters of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where it was attended by renowned Bulgarian scientists in the field, in addition to early-career researchers and PhD students representing different institutions.

The event was organised by the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL): a national node, part of the International Barcode of Life, which was established in October 2023 by  the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics (BAS), Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, National Museum of Natural History (BAS), Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, AgroBioInstitute (Agricultural Academy), University of Forestry, and Pensoft in its role of a scientific publisher and tech innovator well-known in the field of biodiversity science.

The event saw a day-long series of lectures and a poster session, during which the participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of their colleagues in various fields of biology. 

Amongst the topics were the development of the Bulgarian molecular laboratory in Antarctica; the study of the invertebrate fauna currently underrepresented in DNA reference libraries; the return of the beaver to Bulgaria; and research on phytopathogenic fungi on agricultural crops.

During the coffee breaks sponsored by the National Museum of Natural History, the delegates had the chance to network and exchange experience between institutions and fields of expertise.

Teodor Georgiev, CTO at Pensoft held a presentation about the 2.0 version of the ARPHA Writing Tool. In its greatly improved version, it will feature many new, refined and elaborated workflows that help and simplify data publishing, discoverability, reusability and overall FAIRness. 

The event was opened and closed by Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, who was elected as the Chair of the Governing Board at the Bulgarian Barcode of Life last year. He is also the founder and CEO of Pensoft.

In his closing speech, Penev expressed his hopes for the development of BgBOL and confirmed the plans of the consortium to turn the symposium into an annual tradition. Congratulations were extended to BgBOL’s newest member: the Institute of Oceanology “Fridtjof Nansen” at BAS. 

He also announced the launch of a new special collection in the Biodiversity Data Journal, which will welcome scientific papers related to the Bulgarian and Balkan biota and using DNA barcoding methods. The authors of the first five papers to be submitted and accepted at the collection will take advantage of free publication.

Finally, he thanked the hosts of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Headquarters: Stefania Kamenova and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Georgi Bonchev, who are also Vice-Chair and Chair of the Executive Board at BgBOL, respectively. A special thanks went also to Prof. Pavel Stoev, Director of the National Museum of Natural History.

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You can visit the website of the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL) at https://bgbol.org/en and follow the BgBOL consortium on Facebook.

Newly established Bulgarian Barcode of Life to support biodiversity conservation in the country

Newly established Bulgarian Barcode of Life to support biodiversity conservation in the country

As the latest national node to join the International Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL), its main task is to coordinate, support, and promote DNA barcoding research in Bulgaria.

On 27 September 2023, during a specialised symposium on DNA barcoding at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL), a Bulgarian DNA barcoding consortium, was founded. 

Logo of the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL), a Bulgarian DNA barcoding consortium and the latest national node to join the International Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL).

By becoming the latest national node to join the International Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL), the main task before BgBOL will be to coordinate, support, and promote DNA barcoding research in Bulgaria, with a primary focus on the study and preservation of the country’s biodiversity.

“The Bulgarian Barcode of Life opens up new horizons and opportunities to study and understand the biodiversity in Bulgaria,”

says Dr Georgi Bonchev, Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS).

DNA barcoding is a method to identify individual organisms based on nucleotide sequences captured from short, predefined and standardised segments of DNA.

Dr Georgi Bonchev explains the DNA barcoding method at the specialised symposium held on 27 September 2023 at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 
Photo by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The formation of the BgBOL consortium is expected to strengthen the network of collaborations, ultimately contributing to the broader dissemination and popularisation of DNA barcoding research in the region.BgBOL was created by seven academic institutions: Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics (BAS), Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, National Museum of Natural History (BAS), Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, AgroBioInstitute (Agricultural Academy), University of Forestry, and Pensoft in its role of a scientific publisher and tech innovator well-known in the field of biodiversity science.

Prof. Lyubomir Penev joined the symposium with a talk on the publication, dissemination and management of DNA barcoding data. His presentation also touched on the relevant biodiversity data workflows and tools currently in development at Pensoft with the support of the Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL.
Photo by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

As part of the event, Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev led a discussion on the publication, dissemination and management of DNA barcoding data. His presentation also touched on the relevant biodiversity data workflows and tools currently in development at Pensoft with the support of the Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL (abbreviation for Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library).

“I’d like to congratulate everyone involved in the establishment of the Bulgarian Barcode of Life! This is a huge step forward in advancing DNA barcoding research in Bulgaria and, ultimately, the preservation of the country’s amazing biodiversity,”

comments Prof. Lyubomir Penev.

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About the International Barcode of Life:

The International Barcode of Life Consortium is a research alliance undertaking the largest global biodiversity science initiative: create a digital identification system for life that is accessible to everyone.

iBOL is working to establish an Earth observation system that will discover species, reveal their interactions, and establish biodiversity baselines. The consortium is tracking ecosystems across the planet and exploring symbiomes – the distinct fungal, plant, and animal species associated with host organisms. Our goal is to complete this research and establish baseline data for science and society’s benefit.

Efficiency of insect biodiversity monitoring via Malaise trap samples and DNA barcoding

The massive decline of over 75% insect biomass reported from Germany between 1989 and 2013 by expert citizen scientists proves the urgent need for new methods and standards for fast and wide-scale biodiversity assessments. If we cannot understand species composition, as well as their diversity patterns and reasons behind them, we will fail not only to predict changes, but also to take timely and adequate measures before species go extinct.

An international team of scientists belonging to the largest and connected DNA barcoding initiatives (iBOL, GBOL, BFB), evaluated the use of DNA barcode analysis applied to large samples collected with Malaise traps as a method to rapidly assess the arthropod fauna at two sites in Germany between May and September.

One Malaise trap (tent-like structure designed to catch flying insects by attracting them to its walls and then funneling them into a collecting bottle) was set in Germany’s largest terrestrial protected natural reserve Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald in Bavaria. Located in southeast Germany, from a habitat perspective, the park is basically a natural forest. The second trap was set up in western Germany adjacent to the Middle River Rhine Valley, located some 485 kilometers away from the first location. Here, the vegetation is eradicated annually due to St. Martin’s fires, which occur every November. Their findings are published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

DNA barcoding enables the identification of a collected specimen by comparing its BIN (Barcode Index Number) against the BOLD database. In contrast to evaluation using traditional morphological approaches, this method takes significantly less experience, time and effort, so that science can easily save up on decades of professional work.

However, having analyzed DNA barcodes for 37,274 specimens equal to 5,301 different BINs (i.e., species hypotheses), the entomologists managed to assign unambiguous species names to 35% of the BINs, which pointed to the biggest problem with DNA barcoding for large-scale insect inventories today, namely insufficient coverage of DNA barcodes for Diptera (flies and gnats) and Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) and allied groups. As the coverage of the reference database for butterflies and beetles is good, the authors showcase how efficient the workflow for the semi-automated identification of large sample sizes to species and genus level could be.

In conclusion, the scientists note that DNA barcoding approaches applied to large-scale samplings collected with Malaise traps could help in providing crucial knowledge of the insect biodiversity and its dynamics. They also invite their fellow entomologists to take part and help filling the gaps in the reference library. The authors also welcome taxonomic experts to make use of the unidentified specimens they collected in the study, but also point out that taxonomic decisions based on BIN membership need to be made within a comparative context, “ideally including morphological data and also additional, independent genetic markers”. Otherwise, the grounds for the decision have to be clearly indicated.

The study is conducted as part of the collaborative Global Malaise Trap Program (GMTP), which involves more than 30 international partners. The aim is to provide an overview of arthropod diversity by coupling the large-scale deployment of Malaise traps with the use of specimen-based DNA barcoding to assess species diversity.

Sequence analyses were partially defrayed by funding from the government of Canada through Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute in support of the International Barcode of Life project. The German Barcode of Life project (GBOL) is generously supported by a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FKZ 01LI1101 and 01LI1501) and the Barcoding Fauna Bavarica project (BFB) was supported by a 10-year grant from the Bavarian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Art.

 

 

Original source:

Geiger M, Moriniere J, Hausmann A, Haszprunar G, Wägele W, Hebert P, Rulik B (2016) Testing the Global Malaise Trap Program – How well does the current barcode reference library identify flying insects in Germany? Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e10671. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e10671