MARES

MARES (MARine Eukaryote Species) consolidates COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) sequences from GenBank and BOLD into a unified, curated reference database and pipeline to improve taxonomic assignment in marine DNA metabarcoding studies.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive Reference Database: Consolidates all available COI sequences from marine taxa in GenBank and BOLD into a single unified taxonomy.
• Transparent and Reproducible Pipeline: Implements a reproducible pipeline that includes curation of sequences, synonymization of taxonomic identifiers from different repositories, and formatting for compatibility with taxonomic assignment tools.
• Facilitation of Database Curation: Standardizes database creation processes to enable generation of tailored, high-quality reference databases for specific studies.
• Enhanced Taxonomic Assignment: Unifies COI references into a single taxonomy to improve species-level assignment accuracy in metabarcoding analyses.
• Benchmark for Marine DNA Metabarcoding: Provides a standardized reference framework to facilitate comparison and integration of results across marine metabarcoding studies.

Scientific Applications:

• Biodiversity Assessment: Characterizes biodiversity in environmental and community samples from marine ecosystems using COI-based metabarcoding.
• Custom Database Development: Produces custom reference databases tailored to specific study requirements while maintaining standardized curation and formatting.
• Contaminant Identification: Supports creation of decontamination databases to identify and exclude potential contaminants such as human, sheep, goat, and fly DNA from marine samples.

Methodology:

Consolidation of COI sequences from GenBank and BOLD, curation of sequences, synonymization of taxonomic identifiers across repositories, and formatting of references for compatibility with taxonomic assignment tools.