– ABOUT
Great barrier reef
Bioplatforms Australia and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation partnered in 2012 to launch the Great Barrier Reef Framework Data Initiative, also known as the Sea-quence Project. This collaboration aimed to understand coral genetics and their response to climate change, crucial for effective reef management.
The project created an open-access database of coral and symbiodinium genome sequences, along with associated microbial symbiont metagenomics data. Analysis methodologies are publicly available, enabling faster and more cost-effective coral genome analysis. This initiative represents the world’s largest coral genomics sequencing project, aiming to preserve the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem.
Led by Dr. David Bourne from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the project involved top researchers from Australia and Saudi Arabia, including James Cook University, the University of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and the Australian National University. Supported by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Rio Tinto, and the Fitzgerald Family Foundation.
OBJECTIVES
The creation of referential data resources of of the Great Barrier Reef aims to:
- Understand coral genetics and resilience: investigate coral genetic make-up and their responses to climate change to enhance reef management.
- Provide open access data: generate and share genome sequences and metagenomics data for corals, Symbiodinium, and associated microbes.
- Facilitate efficient research: enable faster, cost-effective analysis and support hypothesis-driven research through publicly available methodologies and comprehensive sequencing data.
DATA
For further information and to view and access initiative data, please go to the Bioplatforms Australia Data Portal.
PARTNERS
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Collaborators
- Dr David Bourne (Australian Institute of Marine Science)
- James Cook University
- The University of Queensland
- The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
- The Australian National University
Genomics in Sea-quence
The Sea-quence Project, the world’s largest coral genomics sequencing project, has genetically sequenced a whole coral organism for the first time – the coral animal, the tiny plants (zooxanthellae) that live in its tissue, and associated microbes including bacteria and viruses. The project has also sequenced eight other forms of coral, two cultured Symbiodinium (zooxanthellae) species and a suite of additional, coral associated microbes, and are releasing all genomics information publicly to the global research community, which can be accessed at the Bioplatforms Australia Data Portal.
KEY INFORMATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT INFORMATION
Bioplatforms Initiative DOI: https://doi.org/10.25953/pb6y-pd38
Umbrella Bioproject ID: PRJNA1075702
Please use this ID when submitting any derived data to a database that is a member of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC), such as GenBank/NCBI, ENA or DDBJ.
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Citation Guidelines
To cite the general initiative:
Great Barrier Reef Initiative, 2012, https://doi.org/10.25953/pb6y-pd38
To cite a specific dataset:
Great Barrier Reef Initiative, 2012, https://doi.org/10.25953/pb6y-pd38, [year-of-data-download], [full dataset title], [dataset-access-URL], accessed [date-of-access].
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Acknowledgement Statement
We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the Great Barrier Reef Initiative Consortium in the generation of data used in this publication. The Initiative is supported by funding from Bioplatforms Australia, enabled by the Commonwealth Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
If relevant, also credit other organisations involved in collection of the particular dataset you are using, as listed in the ‘project_lead’ and ‘project_collaborators’ in the metadata record.