Sequencing our seas

Abstract

The Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) project has been established to collect all eukaryote species in Britain and Ireland for genomic sequencing. New tech developments have enabled high-quality genomic data to be a feasible outcome for some of Earth’s smallest inhabitants. This project will create a new resource of data open to all, which will contain the blueprint of thousands of organisms, holding the key to the evolutionary histories of understudied single-cell protists alongside more well-understood animals like the grey seal. This ambitious project is a collaboration of experts from different geographic and intellectual areas. It will provide the templates for new ways of working and uncover new scientific ground. In a world struggling under the threat of ecological collapse, this project will provide new bio-tech and engineering information to aid our understanding and management of natural ecosystems and the creatures which create them. The Marine Biological Association UK, based in Plymouth, is currently in the process of collecting marine organisms for the project. The marine environment has not been as well studied as terrestrial environments, and this offers a huge opportunity to expand our understanding of this underexplored realm and the creatures that live there, as well as providing context and detail to marine science which will provide new insights to marine research.