Environmental Genomics of Salpa thompsoni in the Southern Ocean

Individual salp specimens were identified while alive, dissected to remove the gut and gut contents, and flash-frozen individually in liquid nitrogen or preserved in 95% ethanol for molecular genetic and genomic analysis. Salpa thompsoni – the target species for this SGER award and the focus of this research – was selected as a 454 sequencing facility pilot project.

This included whole-genome library preparation by shotgun and paired-end pyrosequencing, data analysis and bioinformatics, and presentation of results. Genomic DNA was amplified by emPCR; pyrosequencing was carried out on the amplified fragments. Sequences were aligned and assembled into contigs (i.e., DNA sequences) and scaffolds with GsAssembler software from Roche.