Genomic data has opened new possibilities to understand how organisms change over time, and could enable the discovery of previously undescribed species. Although taxonomy used to be based on phenotypes, molecular data has frequently revealed that morphological traits are insufficient to describe biodiversity. Genomics holds the promise of revealing even more genetic discontinuities, but the parameters on how to describe species from genomic data remain unclear. Fungi have been a successful case in which the use of molecular markers has uncovered the existence of genetic boundaries where no crosses are possible. In this minireview, we highlight recent advances, propose a set of standards to use genomic sequences to uncover species boundaries, point out potential pitfalls, and present possible future research directions.

基因组数据为了解生物体随时间变化的方式提供了新的可能性，并可能发现以前未描述的物种。尽管分类法曾经基于表型，但分子数据经常显示形态特征不足以描述生物多样性。基因组学有望揭示更多的遗传不连续性，但如何从基因组数据描述物种的参数仍然不清楚。真菌是一个成功的案例，其中分子标记的使用揭示了不可能杂交的遗传边界的存在。在这份小型回顾中，我们重点介绍了最新进展，提出了一套使用基因组序列来揭示物种边界，指出潜在陷阱的标准，并提出了可能的未来研究方向。