Genomics & eDNA

Every organism in the ocean continuously sheds cells, mucus, feces, and gametes — all carrying DNA. Filtering seawater and extracting this environmental DNA (eDNA), then sequencing and comparing it against reference databases, produces a species inventory of the community that passed through that water over recent hours to days.

Metabarcoding

DNA metabarcoding amplifies short, taxonomically informative gene regions (barcodes) from environmental samples. A single water filter can yield detection of hundreds of fish species, invertebrates, plankton, and marine mammals simultaneously. MBON has deployed metabarcoding protocols at long-term monitoring stations from the Arctic to the subtropics, building the first globally comparable eDNA biodiversity time series.

Metagenomics and metatranscriptomics

Shotgun sequencing of all DNA (metagenomics) or RNA (metatranscriptomics) in a water sample provides functional information alongside taxonomy — what genes and metabolic pathways are active in the community, not just which species are present. This unlocks questions about ecosystem function that traditional surveys cannot address.

Standardization and reference databases

The power of eDNA depends critically on high-quality reference sequence databases. MBON collaborates with the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD), NCBI, and the OBIS eDNA working group to curate marine reference libraries and develop standard operating procedures for field collection, preservation, extraction, amplification, and bioinformatic analysis.

Working groups

The MBON eDNA working group coordinates protocols and data across regional nodes, contributing to the development of the eDNA Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) framework under GOOS.