The Tara Pacific expedition – A pan-ecosystemic approach of the “-omics” complexity of coral reef holobionts across the Pacific Ocean.

This first paper presents the entire approach of the Tara Pacific expedition. The methodology is quite new as protocols will not be targeting the coral colony itself but its entire ecosystem. 

To enter this “pan-ecosystemic” approach, samples will be taken from coral colonies (3 species) and fishes (2 species) but also from their surrounding environment through surface water, corral-surrounding water and water upstream downstream every island visited (33 in total). These water samples are then sequenced to include the entire microscopic biodiversity into the study of coral reefs. Environmental parameters of the water and the atmosphere of every sampling site are also added to the dataset.

The analysis of these samples will combine metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metabolomics approaches and aims to identify the interaction between environmental stressors, the holobiont and coral resilience.

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