The second workshop of EukRef, a 18S rRNA Gene Collaborative Annotation Initiative, took place at the ICM from November 28th until December 2nd.
Within the framework of this community-wide effort, this workshop has brought together taxonomists with expertise in individual lineages that span the eukaryotic tree of life to curate reference 18S rDNA sequences of these lineages by incorporating knowledge of phylogenetic, morphological, and/or environmental contextual data.
The second workshop of EukRef, a 18S rRNA Gene Collaborative Annotation Initiative, took place at the ICM from November 28th until December 2nd.
Within the framework of this community-wide effort, this workshop has brought together taxonomists with expertise in individual lineages that span the eukaryotic tree of life to curate reference 18S rDNA sequences of these lineages by incorporating knowledge of phylogenetic, morphological, and/or environmental contextual data.
This second edition has been particularly (but not exclusively) focused on Amoebozoa and Rhizaria and integrated the curation efforts on individual eukaryotic groups into a biological data warehouse consisting of curated sequences, flexible taxonomy, and phylogenetic trees and their underlying sequence alignments.
As a result, a18S rDNA reference database will be created and used to investigate the environmental distribution of eukaryotic microbes from large-scale High-throughput Environmental Sequencing datasets. In addition, each curator will be encouraged to use their curated data to address research questions of interest, also discuss with workshop participants how to tackle such projects and finally publish their joint results.
“The EukRef initiative, which is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the International Society of Protistologists, is part of a wider initiative called UniEuk aimed at the creation of a universal taxonomic framework for eukaryotic biology, ecology and evolution” explained Javier del Campo, EukRef Coordinator. During the same week, scientists participated at the UniEuk Steering Committee meeting.
To follow EukRef and UniEuk updates:
@EukRef
eukref.org