The 4-5
April 2016, the Natural History Museum of Geneva (Switzerland) hosted the workshop
“application of genomic tools for benthic monitoring of marine environment:
from technology to legal and socio-economic aspects”, organised by Prof. Jan
Pawlowski of the University of Geneva (http://goo.gl/forms/V9bLHtyJBk).
The workshop was intended as a forum for the exchange
of ideas about the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA)-related techniques for
assessing biodiversity and the impact of human activities on it. It was
attended by environmental professionals, members of regulating bodies, and
scientists.
The presentations and discussion were very lively, and
the overarching idea is that DNA-derived indicators may be effectively used in
the field of environmental monitoring (as they are in other applied sciences).
However, more development and standardization is necessary before they can be
integrated with- or substitute altogether- current techniques using
morphology-based indicators, which are slow, time-consuming, and reliant on a
worlwide dwindling taxonomic expertise.
Xavier Turon and Owen Wangensteen contributed to the
workshop with the talk “Issues in metabarcoding of marine benthos”, where they
pinpointed some conflicting issues, such as the use of DNA vs RNA, the choice
between 18S rDNA or COI markers, or the use of a fixed vs a variable threshold
for clustering sequences into MOTUs. The talk was illustrated with results
obtained in the project METABARPARK.
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Xavier Turon and Tom Wilding, of the Scottish
Association for Marine Science, at the entrance of the Natural History Museum,
with a lovely pet!
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