Harmonizing plant metabarcoding pipelines to support monitoring activities in the field of plants and their functional organismic networks

Som autotrofer er planter er den drivende kraften bak terrestriske økosystemer. Bekymringsfullt står to av fem plantearter overfor trusselen om utryddelse, noe som kan påvirke andre organismer. Plantemetastrekkoding, som innebærer analyse av miljø-DNA (eDNA) for å identifisere taksa, kan standardiseres og automatiseres, noe som gjør det egnet for høy gjennomstrømning, storskala og langsiktig overvåking. Denne teknikken gir en skala og nøyaktighet i biodiversitetsundersøkelser som tidligere var utilgjengelig. I Europa støtter initiativer for naturbevaring seg på tilstedeværelsen av arter, og indikatorarter danner grunnlaget for beslutningstaking innen bevaring. Imidlertid trenger interessenter fra offentlig og privat sektor raske, nøyaktige og rimelige metoder for å overvåke plantebiodiversitet. Det transnasjonale og tverrfaglige METAPLANTCODE-prosjektet har som mål å teste og optimalisere pan-europeiske case-studier om metastrekkoding, gi anbefalinger for beste praksis, optimalisere analyseplattformer for artidentifikasjon og lage brukervennlige referansedatabaser som skal implementeres i europeiske og nasjonale infrastrukturer.

Plants are the driving force behind terrestrial ecosystems as autotrophs. Alarmingly, two out of five plant species are facing the threat of extinction, which may affect other organisms. Plant metabarcoding, which involves analyzing environmental DNA (eDNA) to identify taxa, can be standardized and automated, making it suitable for high-throughput, large-scale, and long-term monitoring. This technique provides a scale and accuracy in biodiversity surveys that was previously unattainable. In Europe, initiatives for nature conservation rely on species presence, and indicator species form the foundation of decision-making in conservation. However, public and private sector stakeholders need rapid, accurate, and inexpensive methods to monitor plant biodiversity. The transnational and transdisciplinary METAPLANTCODE project aims to test and optimize pan-European case studies on metabarcoding, provide best practice recommendations, optimize analysis pipelines for species identification, and create easy-to-use reference databases to be implemented in European and national infrastructures, in collaboration with BIOSCAN Europe, ELIXIR communities and others. The project will identify and specify gaps, publish best practice documents on FAIR data publishing of plant metabarcode data to GBIF and the INSDC databases, and implement ELIXIR-compatible multimodal DL models in novel tools for stand-alone metabarcoding analyses using different data sources. All METAPLANTCODE products will be available at project end FAIR+. The project will support knowledge transfer with associated partners and stakeholders from the start. Relevant stakeholders will be identified, priorities set, communication channels established, monitored, and revised as needed. Greater stakeholder engagement, training, and outreach efforts will be undertaken to ensure that plant metabarcoding becomes a routine standard for biodiversity monitoring in Europe and beyond in the future.