The PMEL 'Omics Program seeks to survey, describe, and understand oceanic biological community responses to physical and chemical oceanographic parameters. We use state-of-the-art targeted metagenomics with custom bioinformatics, and other approaches to identify, quantify, and assess communities of invertebrates and fishes, and their food chains over their geographic ranges, time, and life histories. This knowledge aims to help enhance the U.S. blue economy and contributes to the NOAA mission to conserve and manage our coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.
What's Happening
Hello! My name is Chloe Rabinowitz, and I am an undergraduate research intern through a joint collaboration between the University of Washington (UW) EarthLab and NOAA PMEL ‘Omics Group. This summer, I sampled zooplankton from the Salish Sea and then proceeded to extract DNA and sequence species of interest. The purpose of my work has been to publish whole mitochondrial genomes to the national nucleotide database (NCBI) to enhance our understanding of zooplankton biodiversity in the region. Sequencing the full mitogenome enriches the coverage of zooplankton species by ensuring there is a reference sequence regardless of the targeted DNA amplicon. Additionally, information gained by assembling the mitochondrial genome can provide significant insight in understanding the evolutionary history of... more
Feature Publication
Many of the PMEL staff stopped by the NOAA booth to give lightning talks and network with other NOAA staff.