Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics of Marine and Environmental Resources – GenoDREAM

Keywords: marine biodiversity; population genetics; marine genomics; phylogeny; molecular taxonomy; molecular traceability; Chondrichthyes; fishery resources

The Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics of Marine and Environmental Resources – GenoDREAM – belongs to “Renzo Sartori” Laboratory Unit (location: Campus of Ravenna, Via S. Alberto 163, 48123, Ravenna, Italy). The GenoDREAM Lab is exclusively dedicated to institutional research, in collaboration with SMEs and NGOs involved in marine conservation and fishery sector (it does not provide third-party services).

Educational activities and lab practical are provided in the teaching laboratories now located in the Experimental Agricultural Technical High School (Via dell’Agricoltura 5).

The GenoDREAM Lab focuses on marine neo-and archaeo-zoogenetics; implementing biomolecular analysis on marine species tissues and bioinformatics analysis on population genetics and genomics with the aim of investigating:

1. phylogenetic and evolutive relationships among the different marine species.
2. connectivity and population structure of marine populations.
3. space-time changes in reproduction and demography of marine species and populations of priority importance for fish management and biological conservation, including also the analyses of museum, historical and archeological samples.
4. taxonomy, species traceability and geographical origins of marine species important for commercial and conservation interests

The main taxa investigated by the GenoDREAM unit are the following:

• Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fishes, with a special focus on Atlantic and Mediterranean rays, skates and sharks (among these: great white shark, blue shark, demersal sharks, endemic and cosmopolitan rays and sawfishes)
• Bony fish, including numerous relevant commercial fishery and aquaculture marine species such as bluefin tuna, tropical tunas, hake and sole
• Marine invertebrates, including valuable marine crustacean and molluscs species

Core technologies, also supplied by outsourced services, are used to analyse DNA, genetic and genomic markers; genetic variation data are investigated at mitochondrial and microsatellite loci whereas genomic data output provides information for variation at SNP loci. Genomics is performed by Next Generation Sequencing technologies such as Genotyping-By-Sequencing, Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing and Whole Genome Resequencing.

Beside these core technologies, technical skills and competences in ancient DNA analysis, geometrical morphometry, microelements analysis and radioisotopes have been acquired thanks to collaborations with other research teams.

Laboratory equipment

• Basic lab equipment for DNA biomolecular analyses: water bath, thermomixer, refrigerated centrifuge, sterilizer, chemical hood, laminar flow hood, electrophoresis system for DNA analysis on agarose gel, PCR thermocycler, UV transilluminator, Qubit for DNA and RNA quantification, tools and kits for DNA extraction.
• ICT for genetic and genomic data analyses: GenoDREAM Lab possesses and exploits a PowerEdge R740XD server with a processor Intel Xeon Gold 6238R 2.2G, 28C/56T, 10.4GT/s, 38.5 M Cache, Turbo, HT (165W), installed on LINUX-Ubuntu operating system 18.04 LTS 64 Bit and 6 Hard Drivers Bays 1.6TB SSD SAS Mix Use 12Gbps 2.5 in Hot-plug; GenoDREAM data storage is done on a DS1621 DiskStation with 6 internal HDD (6TB each).

Training activities

The GenoDream research unit offers key competences for experimental research work in:

• Conceptualization and preparation of BSc and MSc experimental thesis in Marine Biology, Natural Sciences, Bioinformatics, Environmental Sciences, Marine Sciences
• Conceptualization and preparation of PhD research programs within national and international networks (Erasmus Mundus, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions).
• Research projects for post-Doc fellows and visiting researchers.