Genomes making waves for marine life.
Why do EBP-affiliated scientists want to sequence all eukaryotic life in the global oceans? As Mark Blaxter, Head of the Tree of Life Programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, put it:
“From space, the planet is blue—70% of Earth’s surface area is water. And by depth, there is far more depth to the planet than there is height. The oceans are where all phyla can be found, and where most of life exists.”
Despite this immense biological richness, we still understand very little about how most marine species grow, behave, and interact. EBP-affiliated scientists are paving the way for transformative discoveries. We won’t know the full range of insights that marine genomes can unlock—insights into agriculture and aquaculture, pathogens and disease, climate resilience, growth rates, regenerative biology, and extreme adaptations—until we build a comprehensive catalog of high-quality, near-complete genomes.
These genomes will serve as a launchpad into uncharted scientific frontiers, helping us ask new questions, make unexpected discoveries, and illuminate the hidden blueprint of life in Earth’s oceans.
🌍 Travel through the oceans and see how genomes unravel the mysteries of the deepest depths
Coastal
Coral Reefs
Mariana’s Trench
Deep Sea Life
The Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)
Squalomix dives into underwater sight.
The Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) exhibits a strikingly unique method of underwater vision, enabling it to exploit habitats throughout the entire water column. This lifestyle requires its eyes to adapt to both the brightly lit surface and the cold, dimly lit depths of the ocean. Researchers from Squalomix analyzed complete shark genomes to identify specific gene mutations that support vision in near-total darkness. Their findings reveal a remarkable evolutionary adaptation: whale shark vision responds dynamically to light levels based on water temperature. In the deep ocean’s cold waters, blue light–sensing pigments essential for low-light vision are activated, while in the warmer, sunlit surface waters, these pigments are deactivated. This temperature-sensitive molecular switch highlights the intricate ways evolution has shaped sensory systems for survival across extreme marine environments.
Coral Reefs: the most biodiverse ecosystems around the world
Coral Reef Ecosystems: some of the most biodiverse
Sea fan.
Plants underwater: generating oxygen
more here
Mariana’s Trench: evolution of life at the deepest point of the ocean
Write more here.
Diversity around a coral reef.
Written by: Anna Bramucci (Earth BioGenome Project: Genomic Insights Coordinator)
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all EBP-affiliated projects and downstream researchers using these EBP reference genomes who submitted valuable contributions to this newsletter. And thank you to all of the funders supporting these monumental research efforts around the world.