bold: The Barcode of Life Data System (http://www.barcodinglife.org)

The paper introduces the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD), an informatics workbench designed to aid the acquisition, storage, analysis, and publication of DNA barcode records. By assembling molecular, morphological, and distributional data into a single platform, it bridges a traditional gap in bioinformatics and is offered freely to any researcher with interests in DNA barcoding. The paper introduces the key elements of BOLD and discusses their functional capabilities.

Through specialized services, BOLD helps researchers assemble records that meet the standards needed to gain BARCODE designation in the global sequence databases. Its web-based delivery and flexible data security model make it well suited to support projects involving broad research alliances. The paper concludes by examining the system's computational resources and future prospects, positioning BOLD as core infrastructure for the DNA barcoding community.