CRIOBE

BIOCODE
Genetical Bar coding of Moorea’s living organisms – From the top of the mountain to the deep reefs

As part of a demonstrative backing from the Gordon and Betty Moore American foundation, the Berkeley university GUMP station (California, USA) and the CRIOBE (CNRS-EPHE) undertake to do a feasibility study : of bar-coding the integrity of Moorea’s living species?

The uniqueness of this project stands in the fact that it is about integrating every single ecosystem of an island from the top of the mountain to the depths of the external reefs.

The biocode project will not only produce a species identification system, optimized for field biology and species preservation, but also the necessary data processing structure which will allow the association of ecology, systematic and genomic.

The “bio-data processing” component being developed by Berkeley natural history museum associated computer engineer.

During the preliminary phase, coralline fish, as well as insects have been targeted. Regarding CRIOBE’s participation, a mission took place in order to collect all the fish species resulting in the collection of more than 500 species and over 1500 individuals all genetically sequenced and integrated in the data-base. (See http://bscit.berkeley.edu/biocode)

A similar work has been achieved for insects with the GUMP station as operational structure.

In the end, the preliminary phase’ success (2006-2007) has been rewarded by a stronger involvement of the Gordon and Betty Moore American foundation which is now funding the project’s continuity for an other 3 years.

This project is lead in partnership with the CRIOBE, the UMR 5244 (CNRS-EPHE-UPVD), the Berkeley University, the Florida University and the Smithsonian.