Biofouling and genomics

The ABIOP+ project has been further enhanced by an article that has just been published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on the diversity of eukaryotic marine biofouling in coastal and offshore areas. The work presented in the article was mainly carried out by Aurélie Portas as part of her PhD. Three main conclusions are formulated:

• The most cost-effective DNA extraction method for marine biofouling is a no-grind protocol based on a commercial kit, which has undergone several optimisations.
• The different genomic markers used – 5 regions of the eukaryotic 18S small ribosome subunit gene and 1 region of the mitochondrial CO1 cytochrome C oxidase gene – each identified a distinct set of taxa present in the marine biofouling assemblages, with different taxonomic resolution. These results highlight the importance of marker selection in studies based on molecular approaches. To further refine this result and be more discriminating, a multi-gene approach should be included to obtain a more complete coverage of the diversity of biofouling communities.
• Regardless of the marker used, spatial variations in the structure of biofouling eukaryotic communities can be assessed using a metabarcoding approach that shows specific communities for each study site (Banyuls, Toulon, Saint-Nazaire). The results also underline the importance of targeted markers to move towards a global approach.

Read the article published in Frontiers in Marine Science