Creation of two joint laboratories for MARBEC with SYPGEN and Andromède Océanologie
Since mid-2019, the Research Joint Research Unit Research (IRD, CNRS, Ifremer, University of Montpellier) has been working with SPYGEN, an SME based in Bourget du Lac (73), to develop environmental DNA (eDNA) expertise for monitoring marine fauna and to establish new biodiversity indicators based on these technologies.
This collaboration is supported by I-Site Muse as part of its Companies on Campus program. These two entities have just joined forces through the Diag-ADNe joint laboratory (ANR Lab Com 2021-2024) in order to gain a better understanding of marine fauna and establish new biodiversity indicators based on these technologies.
The University of Montpellier, through MARBEC, has also partnered with Andromède océanologie to develop innovative methods for studying underwater habitats through the joint laboratory InToSea (ANR Lab Com2 2016-2019).
Both companies wish to develop their leading position in the field of species inventory and assessment of the ecological status of marine habitats. Through these projects, the three partners complement each other by combining their expertise in the marine environment (site knowledge, field sampling, diving expertise, pressure data), metabarcoding (environmental DNA extraction and amplification), and bioinformatics (sequence analysis) and data interpretation through the development and calculation of indicators.
An initial two-year project is already mobilizing these three partners with an inventory of marine species, carried out during the first lockdown. The partners have completed their databases and accessed original and unique inventory data in the absence of human activity, which can provide indicators of the baseline status of the sites studied. They have also compared different sampling methods in order to improve fieldwork and have drafted a methodological guide.
New collaborations are expected on more ambitious projects, particularly at the international level and on tropical systems.
* MARBEC has expertise in marine biodiversity in lagoon, coastal, and offshore ecosystems, mainly in the Mediterranean and tropical regions. Its research covers various levels of integration, from molecular, individual, population, and community aspects to human uses of this biodiversity. It focuses its efforts on four main objectives:
- describe marine biodiversity,
- understand the dynamics and functioning of marine ecosystems,
- analyze the impact of anthropogenic pressures on these ecosystems
- develop scenarios for responding to global change, reconcile exploitation and conservation, and meet societal expectations (expertise, innovation, remediation).