In 2009, the BioMarKs (Biodiversity on Marine Eukaryotes) program started as a consortium of 8 European research institutes. The interdisciplinary approach of the program brought scientists from different fields of microbial eukaryotic research together; such as taxonomy, ecology, marine biology, evolution, genomics and bioinformatics. In one of the most extensive co-operations of European microbial biologists, aquatic and benthic samples at 9 distinct coastal sites from the Arctic to the Black Sea have been collected. The idea of the program was to gain new insights into the microbial life of the oceans, especially under the light of climate change and ocean acidification. At Kaiserslautern we are especially interested in the role that Ciliates play in these habitats. Our sampled data comprises both, metagenomic (DNA) and metatransciptomic (cDNA) sequences from 44 habitats at European coastal sites. With the bioinformatical analysis of this data we want to contribute to models which will predict the impact of environmental parameters to microbial communities.

For more information on this project, go to

www.biomarks.eu