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Lousada (Portugal)

3 – 5 April 2023

BGE’s first citizen science workshop took place in early April in Mata de Vilar, Portugal.The three-day workshop, called ‘The Little Things That Run the World’ was organised by BIOPOLIS – CIBIO. It aimed to create awareness on the diversity and importance of invertebrates. A total of 12 participants – ranging from municipality technicians to (biology) university students – took part in the workshop.

 

The workshop consisted of a mix of theoretical and field sessions, brainstorming, games and practical work, including explanations on sampling methods (introduction and trap setting) and interaction with plants and animals (e.g. pollinators).  Newly developed educational games such as the ‘DNA barcoding BINGO’ -using pieces of DNA sequences instead of regular bingo numbers- were also part of the programme.* The participants were also invited to create games of their own during the “Game Factory” within the workshop. The idea was to create an animal board game -focused on different animal stages and interactions with their natural habitat- and develop an invertebrate game/activity that the participants could implement in their workplace or municipality.

The workshop was warmly received by the participants, who mentioned having gained more insight into the DNA barcoding concept. Suggestions, such as the need for a follow-up of the developed games, were also shared. The next one-day follow-up ‘sampling’ workshop of BIOPOLIS – CIBIO is scheduled for next September 2023.

* In this game, teams of participants received a card representing an environmental DNA sample with six DNA sequences, each representing a species present at the site where the sample was collected.The objective was to fill in the card as quickly as possible and, using a guide, name the six species present in the sample.

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The first Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) project conference will take place as a one-day event on 2nd October 2023, integrated within the BG23 programme of events. The conference is a fantastic opportunity to understand the conceptual area of BGE and establish relationships and knowledge exchange with the project’s partners across Europe.

BGE’s conference will introduce the project and its context, providing key case studies of practical applications, and looking at opportunities for engagement and exploitation of project results.

More information on the programmes of both the BGE conference and the BG23 event will be announced soon.

Don’t forget to follow us on social media for the latest updates.

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European experts gather to launch an unprecedented project that will tackle the biodiversity crisis using DNA data. BGE brings together experts from more than 20 countries. The comprehensive application of genomic science to biodiversity research will fundamentally change conservation science and policy – with impacts predicted to be on a scale similar to those of the Human Genome Project in medicine. The new pan-European Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) consortium, launched today, is leading the way.

Time is running out. An appalling one in four species on the planet are currently threatened with extinction, putting livelihoods, food supplies, and essential water and nutrient cycles at risk. Knowledge is of the essence in the fight to reverse this unprecedented loss of species and degradation of ecosystems – yet currently our understanding of how life on Earth functions and responds to environmental pressures is far from complete. Genomics provides crucial new tools to answer these questions, and the BGE consortium will cause a quantum leap in the use of genomics across the continent.

Despite centuries of scientific research, an estimated 80% of the world’s species still await scientific discovery and description. Even for described species, telling them apart is often difficult. Moreover, interactions within and among species, and between species and their environment, create a hugely complex picture from individual to planetary levels. Genomic science is our best hope for success in mapping these interdependencies and predicting how individuals and groups may respond to environmental change.
By bringing together Europe’s key practitioners in two fundamental DNA-based technologies – DNA barcoding and genome sequencing – BGE will streamline the rollout of these methods across Europe.

DNA barcoding uses short sequences of DNA to discriminate between species – analogous to the way conventional barcodes distinguish products in a supermarket. With modern genetic sequencing techniques, DNA barcoding has the potential to dramatically accelerate the inventory of life on Earth, providing a basis for global conservation monitoring.
At the opposite end of the scale, genome sequencing determines the order of DNA nucleotides – the building blocks of the genetic code – throughout the entire genome of any given species. This enables scientists to identify and locate genes and other features of the genome, creating a comparative ‘map’ of the code that creates each organism. This provides a full picture of how biological systems function and, crucially, how species respond and adapt to environmental change.

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