ChallenGen at the 2017 mid-year meeting of The Crustacean Society (TCS)

by Enrique Macpherson

Enrique Macpherson, Marta Pascual and Ferran Palero were members of the Organising Committee of the 2017 mid-year meeting of The Crustacean Society (TCS), of which EM was also the chair.

The meeting was organized by the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and University of Barcelona (UB) and took place in Cosmocaixa, Barcelona, Spain, from 19th to 22nd June 2017. A total of 211 scientists from 34 countries attended the meeting. This symposium, with already some decades of existence, has given particular emphasis to the areas historically covered by the TCS meetings (ecology, fisheries, larvae, taxonomy, among many others topics). The meeting also included the “11th Colloquium Crustacea Decapoda Mediterranea” and the “5th Crustacean Larval Conference”.

The congress has been organized with parallel oral sessions and poster exhibitions, and included several invited plenary lectures made by world renowned crustacean researchers. Members of ChallenGen contributed with two oral presentations and ten posters (see Publications and Outreach: Conferences).

ChallenGen at the meeting "Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe"

by Xavier Turon

ChallenGen was present at the meeting on metabarcoding held in Essen (Germany) in March 7th-9th 2017. This was the kick-off conference of the European Union COST action DNAqua-Net.

This project aims at integrating a group of researchers across disciplines with the task to identify gold-standard genomic tools and novel eco-genomic indices and metrics for routine application for biodiversity assessments and biomonitoring of European water bodies. It also envisages training and dissemination activities. The objectives of ChallenGen are fully compatible with the goals of DNAqua-Net and we wanted to be counted in and contribute.

Xavier Turon is one of the Spanish members of DNAqua-Net and attended this conference, where ca. 200 researchers gathered together to present results, discuss hot topics, and delineate the way forward for achieving a wide acceptance by management bodies of genetic methods for biodiversity assessment in the European context.

Xavier presented the communication "Under the canopy: community-wide effects of invasive algae in marine protected areas revealed by metabarcoding", by Xavier Turon, Owen Wangensteen, Emma Cebrian and Creu Palacín. In this contribution the main results concerning the effects of three invasive algae (Caulerpa cylindracea and Lophocladia lallemandii in Cabrera, and Asparagopsis armata in the Atlantic) on the benthic communities were exposed. We have also drafted and sent a manuscript for publication with these results. This contribution is also a result of the collaboration between ChallenGen and the National Park projects Metabarpark and Corclim.

A heatmap representation of the samples of communities with and without Asparagopsis armata from Cíes Islands, separated by invasion status (green: non-invaded, red: invaded) and fraction (blue: macrobenthos; turquoise: meiobenthos).

ChallenGen at the SIEBM 2016 in Porto

by Marta Campos

From the 5th to 9th September, several ChallenGen members attended the XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM) in Porto, Portugal, which this year was hosted by the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR). Throughout the week, scientific posters and oral communications were presented and we could learn about biodiversity, conservation, ecology, invasive species and oceanography. Moreover, eight invited speakers, from different parts of Europe, explained current research on hot topics and forecasted future directions in marine biology research. One of these speakers was Xavier Turon, who presented a talk about the use of genetic tools in marine biology in the Iberian context. His talk included some of the newest results attained in the ChallenGen Project.

Aside from this plenary lecture, 8 oral communications and 3 posters were presented with ChallenGen results, so the project had a very relevant presence in this meeting.

We also participated in several social events and cultural activities. In addition, we could enjoy the opportunity to know the wonderful city of Porto and its famous wine. We also had plenty of opportunities to eat codfish, which is cooked in apparently endless ways!

We hope to meet again in the next SIEBM which will take place in two years in Algarve!

The eight members of the ChallenGen Project who attended the SIEBM 2016, at the new CIIMAR building.

ChallenGen project and UB at the III Posidonia Summer Festival in Colera

by Carles Carreras

The conference about how molecular tools can be used to study our marine neighbours.

The last 9th of August we participated at the III Posidonia Summer Festival in the beautiful town of Colera. This annual event, organised by the town council and the Som-hi Association, aims to approach people to the sea by organising a large variety of talks and activities, like scientific snorkel, marine biodiversity family workshops or a marine renewable energies conference.

In this context we had the opportunity to explain the ChallenGen Project to local villagers and tourists by describing them several examples of how molecular tools can be used to study our marine neighbours. The talk took place at the Colera Trull, an ancient olive oil cellar, and people from all ages had the opportunity to became scientists for an hour by investigating with genetic markers the life of some of the animals of the Mediterranean sea. We thus discovered how littoral fishes structure their populations and adapt to local environment conditions, or how marine turtles migrate and reproduce, among others interesting examples. The talk was followed by an intense debate were we could answer everybody’s questions including the importance to study and conserve our marine biodiversity.

The ChallenGen group has a new doctor!

by Alex Garcia-Cisneros

After a longer period than seems, at least to me, I defended my thesis the last 28th of June. Some members of the ChallenGen project joined the festive day together. The thesis analysed the biology, genetic structure and phylogeography of two starfish species, Coscinasterias tenuispina and Echinaster sepositus.

During these years of thesis work, we found a low genetic diversity in both asteroid species, lower than other echinoderms with the same distribution range. However, the reasons differ depending on the species. Low diversity in E. sepositus can be explained by a recent demographic expansion from few individuals with few alleles, while in C. tenuispina by the presence of asexual reproduction processes along all its distribution range, even with totally monoclonal populations. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that fissiparity in C. tenuispina increases with environmental instability. However, well-fed individuals do not lose their potential for sexual reproduction (development of gonads, only males). Finally, a last chapter in C. tenuispina presents at least one mechanism to avoid or postpone senescence and ensure persistence of clonal populations: telomere elongation.

Although there were nerves, or more precisely, I was extremely nervous, it was a really good festive day.

Me, with my son, receiving the PhD certificate from Marta Pascual, the principal investigator at the UB of the Challengen project, who was a member of the thesis tribunal.

ChallenGen at the 6th International Barcode of Life Conference (Guelph, Canada)

ChallenGen Project will be present in the 6th International Barcode of Life Conference that will be held at Guelph (Canada), next August 18th - 21st 2015. Our postdoc researcher Owen S. Wangensteen will be presenting our most recent developments of metabarcoding pipelines to study the biodiversity of marine hard-bottom communities with a level of detail never seen before.

ChallenGen at the 8​th International Tunicate Meeting (Aomori, Japan, 13­-17 July, 2015)

by Xavier Turon

Ascidians (Halocynthia roretzi) exhibited at the meeting venue... Can you believe that Japanese people eat them and consider them a delicacy?... I tried, between us, it is disgusting for my western taste.

The International Tunicate Meeting was held this year in Japan. I attended it and presented an oral communication about “Utility of the metabarcoding approach for the determination of tunicate in environmental DNA samples” (with Owen, Cruz, Magdalena, and Iosune Uriz).

I was happy to present in the first morning of the meeting, and could thus relax for the rest of the sessions. The meeting was very interesting, particularly the final discussion about the correct names of the species in the complex C​iona intestinalis.​ It seems that the species whose genome we sequenced, whose development has been studied all over the world, one of the best investigated invertebrate species, should be called C​iona robusta! ​I was called in as an expert taxonomist (an endangered species, btw) and had my saying on it, not to the likings of everyone, to be honest. I guess the controversy will continue for some time.

I also took advantage of my trip to sample D​idemnum vexillum​ in its native area. Dr. Gretchen Lambert was kind enough to give me some samples from the South collected during a pre­meeting course. I could collect myself in the Aomori Marine Station thanks to the help of Dr. Gaku Kumano. Overall, it was an enjoyable trip and experience.