*5.7. Bioinformatic Analysis*

The quantity of data produced from DNA metabarcoding studies requires automated processes for curation of sequences, including steps for quality control. The main purpose of this process is to remove any additional nucleotide sequences (index tags, adapter tags, and primers) and to separate each sample for subsequent analysis (demultiplexing). The reduction of the need for expert taxonomists to identify pollen grains is often cited as one of the major advantages of molecular methods over pollen microscopy [91]. However, few authors have highlighted the importance of having good knowledge of the taxonomic group in question (i.e., plants in pollen metabarcoding), including their distribution and phenology for accurate species identification [37,38,83,152]. Misidentifications may occur during the bioinformatic process due to low interspecific variance [32] or incorrectly identified sequences in GenBank [153]. In order to mitigate misidentifications, deployment of a manual verification step in the assignment process, underpinned by botanical expertise, will reduce incorrect species assignments.
