ADVANCED COURSE:
DNA METABARCODING: How to design and analyze next-generation data for biodiversity monitoring
March 24-28, 2025 | Face-to-face (Estação Biológica de Mértola)
DNA metabarcoding is now widely used to explore biodiversity patterns and food webs across diverse habitats and ecosystems. This method enables the identification of multiple organisms within complex samples—such as air, water, feces, soil, or bulk biological material—through the amplification of taxonomically informative genomic regions. Significant progress has been made in developing this approach, driven by the need for a simple, rapid, and cost-effective solution. However, the successful application of DNA metabarcoding requires expertise in multiple fields, including traditional and DNA-based taxonomy, molecular biology, next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, bioinformatics, and computational statistics. Poorly informed technical decisions at any stage of the workflow can compromise the quality of results. This course is designed to address the intricacies of each step in the DNA metabarcoding pipeline and provide guidance on best practices, while fostering critical thinking. The main objective is to equip participants with essential tools for robust experimental design, data processing, and analysis in DNA metabarcoding. With a strong emphasis on hands-on bioinformatics and statistical analysis, participants are expected to have prior experience working in the Bash and R environments.
Application deadline: February 24, 2025
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