A post-genomic Beagle

Last month, a press conference was held in California to launch something called the Global Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Research and Analysis (CAMERA). CAMERA is a user-driven site dedicated to providing the scientific community with metagenomics data and analysis tools.

Um, right. Jargon alert! What on earth is "metagenomics"? It's a simple breakdown: "meta" = in the midst of, among, with, and "genome" = the totality of genetic material from a single individual. So, metagenomics is simply the study of the amalgam of genetic material contained in an environmental sample containing more than one individual organism. It is an especially powerful tool for documenting and monitoring the diversity of life in the most difficult of environments: the ocean.

Before going forward with "metagenomes", let's take a stroll down memory lane for a moment, back to a simpler time when individual "genomes" were all the rage. You might remember something called the Human Genome Project, and if you've got enviably deep memory banks you might remember that the project was in essence a race between a consortium of public institutions and a private company, Celera Genomics, headed by Craig Venter. Remember what I said above about a genome being from an individual organism? Well, the so-called "human genome" is actually Craig Venter's own personal genome. Creepy, at best. But we should be willing to forgive Craig Venter for this because he has spent the last several years applying his considerable powers of entrepreneurship to ocean biodiversity.

First, it was shotgun sequencing of the Sargasso sea, and now, in fact at this very moment, Venter's research vessel the Sorcerer II is circumnavigating the globe taking environmental samples along the way (sound familiar?). On the new Voyage of the Beagle (2009-11) we plan a similar marine environmental metagenomics project, with regular sampling and some overlap with Venter's Sorcerer II data set. In other words, we will see what Darwin couldn't. We'll see what is in the ocean beneath the Beagle even in the most murky and mysterious depths simply by using a pair of fancy DNA goggles.

All aboard, and we do mean all.

More information - including regular news - on these global marine metagenomic initiatives including this clever graphic, can be found in a special collection at the Public Library of Science. Don't miss Craig Venter's web seminar ("webinar", ugh).