Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Real Time PCR is a method used in the identification of single genes known to scien-
ce.
High-Throughput Genomic Sequences methods are used to sequence entire gen-
omes or any DNA to be found within entire ecological systems (oceans, soils, and
sediments, even intestines). Examples of related technologies are: 454, Illumina, Sol-
id.
Proteomicscanbeconsideredasanalternativeorcomplementarymethodtocon-
ventional methods used to identify genes that have codified for proteins (gene expres-
sion). It is a long and difficult method, which is not self-sufficient but merely com-
plements DNA methods in that it allows us to identify proteins corresponding with
specific genes. Proteomics can be applied to different samples.
Barcoding is a technique for species identification based on the sequence of 16S
RNA (mitochondrial RNA in eukaryotes).
Breakthroughsinhigh-throughputDNAsequencingandbioinformaticshavecontributedto
rendering genetic resources into informational forms such as gene or protein sequence data
held in databases. Practices in open science, technological advances, and the digitization
of genetic and other information have rendered genetic resources and derived information
more accessible. Research and development on genetic resources is therefore not only a
field biologist's domain, but also one increasingly dominated by computational biologists
and bioinformaticists (Glowka,
2010
).
DNA identification methods are becoming increasingly accessible. For example, se-
quencing an entire bacterial genome currently costs around 300 euros, but the analysis
remains complex. The scientific capacity to do so is not evenly distributed among those
countries with an interest in marine genetic resources, including in terms of the capacity to
handle significant amounts of data. It is also noteworthy that advances in genomics have
resulted in a steep increase in available data and the capacity to handle such data is lagging
behind.
