Thanks to its expertise in collecting, taxonomy and conservation, the Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) is coordinating the field component of this DIVE-Sea program. The aim is to coordinate the collection of marine organisms for genomic sequencing.
To mark the launch of the targeted DIVE-Sea project, a press conference was organized on Friday April 5, 2024 by the MNHN to present the project’s challenges: establishing a genomic atlas and building the naturalist collections of the future.
DIVE-Sea will take scientists and divers along the French coast on a tour of the seven marine stations belonging to Sorbonne University, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS and the Muséum. Scientific explorations will also be deployed overseas.
The collection campaigns will kick off in June at the Dinard marine station. Mollusks, crustaceans, annelids, cnidarians, ascidians, algae and sponges will be scrutinized by some thirty participants.
Once the biological samples have been taken at Génoscope, the reference specimens will remain accessible to researchers, while the Muséum will preserve the collection of tissues preserved at -80°C and the cryopreserved cells of specific species.