DNA mini-barcoding: An innovative solution for degraded DNA and its multidisciplinary application landscape.

DNA mini-barcoding robustly amplifies short DNA fragments, enabling reliable species and trace identification in highly degraded DNA where conventional longer-region barcoding often fails.

• Why it matters: Conventional DNA barcoding targets longer regions and frequently breaks down with fragmented samples, limiting forensic, archaeological, food, and environmental applications.
• What they did: This review synthesizes advances in mini-barcoding and maps its use across forensic evidence tracing, fossil/archaeological identification, food authenticity, and traditional Chinese medicine adulteration detection.
• The result: The approach supports species identification from environmental samples for biomonitoring and shows promise for biodiversity assessment and wildlife trade regulation, especially when paired with complementary trace DNA methods.

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