Title: Barcoding Arctic Benthos: Applications for Reproductive Ecology and Phylogenetics
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Principal Investigator Sarah Mincks, Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA |
Project goals
Gene sequences (particularly for the mitochondrial COI gene) will be generated for benthic invertebrates collected in summer 2007 in the Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas for the purposes of barcoding and phylogenetic analysis. In addition, meroplanktonic larvae collected concurrently will be sequenced in an effort to identify larvae to species and investigate larval dispersal patterns
Results
The most significant deliverables from this project are the barcoding sequences generated for Arctic benthos, which was previously poorly represented in the barcoding database. Over 800 specimens were prepared for sequencing, including about 600 Arctic and 200 Antarctic taxa from a several phyla. Groups that worked particularly well for sequencing included polychaetes and crustaceans. A total of 347 sequences were generated at the time of this report, representing over 60 species. This project closely collaborated with another ArcOD minigrant by Smith and Carr and the PIs co-authored a paper in a special ArcOD issue in the journal “Marine Biodiversity” including analysis of the generated data.
