Marine Barcoding (MarBOL) Symposia for Spring 2009
As part of the MarBOL (DNA Barcoding of Marine Biodiversity, see http://www.marinebarcoding.org/) effort, one-day public Marine Barcoding Symposia were held at the following locations and dates:
- EUROPE: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
Bremerhaven, Germany. Dates: April 16, 2009 - USA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
Woods Hole, MA, USA. Dates: April 30, 2009 - ASIA: Ocean Research Institute,
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Dates: May 21, 2009
The Marine Barcoding Symposia will feature invited keynote speakers, who provided overviews on topics of general scientific interest and practical importance for the MarBOL effort. The Symposium also included contributed talks by researchers from the region, and a poster session.
Keynote speakers at each venue included:
| Germany: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (16 April 2009) |
| Theme (tentative): Current status of barcoding; future applications of barcodes; microarrays (agenda) |
| USA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (30 April) |
| Theme (tentative): Current status of barcoding; bioinformatics and statistics (agenda) |
| Travel and accomodation information |
| Japan: Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo (21 May 2009) (agenda) |
| Theme (tentative): Marine barcoding in Asia; metagenetics; microbes |
The Marine Barcoding Symposium presentations explored various applications of barcodes, including species identification, phylogeography, environmental sequencing, metagenetics, and microarrays.
A number of CoML field projects are actively engaged in DNA barcoding and several new marine barcoding projects have been initiated through the MarBOL project led by Dirk Steinke of the University of Guelph. As reported on the BOLD (Barcode of Life Data System) DNA barcodes have already been prepared for more than 8,000 marine species. MarBOL seeks to effect a huge acceleration in the rate of marine barcoding and to ensure that barcodes are available for members of all key marine groups, with good coverage for groups of highest scientific or societal importance, by 2010. In particular, MarBOL will help CoML field projects barcode efficiently and in ways that complement one another (increasing taxonomic and spatial coverage, reducing duplication). The MarBOL goal is to complete barcodes for at least 50,000 species by mid-2010.
Marine Barcoding Workshops
As part of the MarBOL (DNA Barcoding of Marine Biodiversity) effort, three workshops were held during Spring 2009 to identify bottlenecks and facilitate coordination among active marine barcoding centers – especially those associated with Census of Marine Life (CoML) and Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) projects. The goal of the workshops was to accelerate progress, explore various applications of barcodes, including species identification, trophic analysis, use of microarrays, environmental sequencing, and metagenetics.
The workshop series was designed to reach the global CoML community through meetings at venues in the USA, Europe, and Asia, and to facilitate discussion of a broad range of barcoding issues for marine microbes, invertebrates, and vertebrates.
Contact:
Ann Bucklin
Professor and Head, Department of Marine Sciences
Director, Marine Sciences and Technology Center
University of Connecticut - Avery Point
1080 Shennecossett Road
Groton, CT 06340 USA
Tel. 860-405-9208; Fax 860-405-9153
Email: ann.bucklin@uconn.edu