India begins work on inventory of marine life

January 6, 2010

To study the impact of global warming on marine life in the seas around
India, the government has embarked on a major project to give them DNA
barcodes to "create inventories of biodiversity".

The earth sciences ministry has asked the Centre for Marine Living Resources
and Ecology (CMLRE) at Kochi to start the work on DNA barcoding of marine
biodiversity.

DNA barcoding is a method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism's
DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species. Barcoding a species
costs Rs.10,000-15,000.

"We have initiated a scheme for DNA barcoding as part of our efforts under
Census of Marine Life to create inventories of biodiversity. We had some
meetings and a framework document has been prepared for initiating the
project," V.N. Sanjeevan, director CMLRE, told IANS.

Barcoding initially began with butterflies and fish. It worked well, and
attempts have been made to apply this technique to other marine organisms.

In India barcoding of marine organisms began with a hands-on training, the
first of its kind in the world, organised three years ago during the Indian
Ocean Census of Marine Life (IOCOML). Since then quite a few teams have
taken this up in earnest and have come out with gene sequences for about 200
marine organisms from the seas around India.

"Among the several government agencies in India, the Ministry of Earth
Sciences has recognised the value of barcoding of marine organisms and is in
the process of initiating a national project on this. The Ministry of
Agriculture has barcoding projects for freshwater fishes and domesticated
animals," Mohideen Wafar, chairperson IOCOML, told IANS.

Barcoding allows researchers to track changes in the environment due to
human influence, pollution and global warming.

"Barcoding also provides advantage in wildlife conservation - even when a
protected organism is butchered and beyond visual identification, DNA
sequence from a few milligrams of tissue can confirm its identity," said
Wafar.

"The best example in India is the case of whale shark. This is a protected
species but recently one was caught by some fishermen in Kerala and pieces
of its flesh, under a different name, were sold in the market. The wildlife
authorities arrested the people and, in the absence of other evidence, could
get the confirmation that the meat is indeed that of a whale shark by DNA
sequencing," he added.

Barcoding began in 2006 in India. As of now, the efforts are confined to
groups like Annamalai University's Centre of Advanced Study in Marine
Biology and the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa.

"Less than 200 out of the 14,000 species known from Indian seas have been
barcoded. This translates to about one percent. Given the number of
potential marine species and the difficulties of barcoding some groups, it
is difficult to set a time limit. But I would hope that at least 80-90
percent of known marine species get their barcodes in a decade," said Wafar.

The scientists are also in the process of developing a hand-held barcode
reader in which a tissue sample will be placed. Then the instrument
automatically extracts the DNA, processes it, sequences it, compares with a
set of data already stored in its memory and comes out with identification
of the species.

"The year 2010 will be celebrated as the International Year of Biodiversity
and that is one key reason the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) Project
is scheduled for activation in mid-2010. India plans participation in this
project as a regional node together with 25 other nations," Wafar said.
                Source: ThaiIndian