Molecular resolution of some West African Birds using DNA Barcoding

DNA barcoding is widely used for specie cataloging for unambiguous identification and conservation. In the present study, baseline information on the DNA barcoding of mitochondrial CO1 gene of some randomly caught West African birds were provided with five newly reported sequences for Tringa sp, Streptopelia decipens, Francolinus bicalcaratus, Tyto alba and Francolinus squamatus. Species identifications were made by comparing unknown CO1sequences against the DNA barcodes of known species through distance-based tree construction and alignment searching. The newly generated sequences are deposited in GenBank under accession numbers JX160000 - JX160017 and JX220905. Current study may contribute towards the development of a reference DNA barcoding database of West African birds.