Fastachar

Fastachar extracts molecular diagnostic characters from aligned DNA sequences to support species descriptions and taxonomic discrimination, including identification of cryptic species.

Key Features:

• Molecular diagnostic extraction: Extracts discrete molecular diagnostic characters from aligned DNA sequences for species differentiation and formal descriptions.
• Single-step extraction: Performs extraction from one or several taxonomically informative DNA markers in a single analysis step.
• Input format compatibility: Accepts aligned sequences in FASTA format, including alignments produced by MEGA or Geneious.

Scientific Applications:

• Taxonomy and systematics: Provides molecular characters required for formal species descriptions and taxonomic delimitation.
• Detection of cryptic species: Identifies diagnostic molecular differences not evident from morphology to assist recognition of cryptic taxa.
• Biodiversity and evolutionary studies: Supplies character data for biodiversity assessments and comparative evolutionary analyses across taxa.

Methodology:

The method follows the molecular character-based model of Jörger and Schrödl (2013), comparing DNA sequences from a selected taxon against other taxa to identify discrete molecular diagnostic characters.