DNA sequencing of Pacific island under way

The data gathered by scientists from the university's Florida Museum of Natural History will be used to study ecological processes in depth across the entire island. Moorea's coral reefs in particular are considered crucial indicators of how natural systems respond to climate change, researchers said.

"Nobody has ever sequenced a single place to this level," said Gustav Paulay, the project's team leader for marine invertebrates and the Florida Museum's curator of marine malacology. "And nobody has ever investigated coral reef biodiversity this thoroughly in one place."

The three-year Moorea Biocode Project is now in its second year and the Florida Museum scientists are one of seven teams collecting specimens on everything from terrestrial vertebrates to algae. The island, about 37 miles in circumference, is located 11 miles from Tahiti.

The island's coral reefs are being studied under a long-term ecological research project funded by the National Science Foundation. DNA information is being uploaded to a global sequencing effort known as the Barcode of Life, which hopes to collect a DNA sequence for every living thing on Earth.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.