Multilocus DNA barcode of marine species not represented in sequences database: subsidies for DNA metabarcoding off the São Paulo coast

• Grant number: 22/14631-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Biological Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Rodrigues Domingues
• Grantee: Eduarda Valério de Jesus
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/10201-0 - Marine biodiversity: an exploration of São Paulo coastal islands using environmental DNA metabarcoding, AP.BTA.JP
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/09214-8 - Barcoding and metabarcoding of reef-associated species of the São Paulo coastal islands, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

The marine biome encompasses a rich biodiversity, which currently suffers direct and indirect influences from human activities, which results in an ecosystem imbalance, causing ecological disasters and significant losses. Over the last decades, several methods have been used to estimate the biodiversity of an area such as scientific cruises and monitoring of fishing landings, visual census using linear transects, and remote underwater videos. Recently, biomonitoring using DNA has begun, for example, the DNA barcode consortium. More recently, with the development of biotechnology and the improvement of new molecular techniques, non-invasive methods for obtaining biological samples from environmental samples have been developed, a technique known as environmental DNA (eDNA). This technique is based on the fact that all marine animals release cells into the sea through feces, mucus, gametes, etc. Thus, this genetic material can be collected by filtering water, allowing the extraction of DNA, and the amplification of one or more genes from several species of different groups simultaneously, through the technique of metabarcoding. However, for this monitoring to be efficient, databases with a high representation of species sequences are needed. Therefore, this project aims to complement the databases (NCBI, BOLD, SILVA) with sequences (COI, 18s, 12s) of fish, porifera, and anthozoan species that occur in four coastal islands of São Paulo: Ilha de Búzios, Alcatrazes Archipelago Wildlife Refuge, Laje de Santos Marine Park and Queimada Grande Island, which will allow biomonitoring for the preservation of marine biota and ecological dynamics of these ecosystems via environmental DNA.