Xavier Turon visits Marc Rius at Southampton

by Xavier turon

Xavier Turon at the entrance hall of NOC with the figurehead of the HMS Challenger. No less!

I have performed a research stay with Marc Rius at the National Oceanography Center of Southampton (NOC), invited by the University of Southampton where Marc is associate professor, from 25^th May to 6^th ­June.

We have been working on ongoing research about the validity of commonly used primers for barcoding genes in the group of ascidians, as part of our efforts to develop efficient metabarcoding markers for invertebrates. The results of this stay will be expanded to other groups and published.

We also sampled marinas in the Southampton area looking for Didemnum vexillum, and could get a couple of good populations from the area. It was a pleasure to share these two productive weeks with Marc and his students... and of course with his family as well.