Joseph Perkins recently attended the eDNA Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, supported by a bursary from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. He presented his research, Toxic Traces: DNA metabarcoding detects ciguatoxin-producing dinoflagellates along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and was honoured with an award for his oral presentation. His work highlights the power of DNA metabarcoding in monitoring toxic dinoflagellates and understanding the risks associated with ciguatera poisoning and seafood safety.

Eva Paulus was awarded $20,000 from the Threatened Species Initiative to sequence the genomes of dugongs along their Australian range, with a special focus on remote regions like the Kimberley and Gascoyne region.

This will enable her to analyse the genomes of 60 additional dugong samples, a huge leap in the knowledge of dugong population genomics in Australia, where most of the samples have so far been collected along the east coast of Queensland.

In addition, she received $8,500 from the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment & the Ecological Society of Australia, which will be used to further the collaboration with Traditional Owners who are managing dugong populations in their sea countries. 

Sally Lau was awarded the Alison Green Zoology Research Fund this year to further her research on East Antarctic marine invertebrates. The research fund supported Sally’s research at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to identify and sample important marine invertebrate specimens collected off the Shackleton Ice Shelf, East Antarctica back in the 2009-2010 season.

Sally worked together with ophuroid expert Chester Sands from the British Antarctic Survey to identify the brittlestars down to the lowest taxonomic level possible. Sally intends to genetically barcode the samples to aid in their identification.

Ira and Jan were both invited speakers at the Australian Genomic Technologies Association (AGTA) conference in October, 2024, in Cairns. Ira gave the ‘Opening Oration’ to the conference with a talk titled ‘Sequencing Rocks: How sequencing technology shapes our understanding of corals and coral reefs.’

The 2024 Australian Antarctic Research Conference in Hobart (November, 2024) drew 450 polar scientists and featured many talks, workshops and over 200 research posters. JCU PhD student Nikki Rodewald from the Marine Omics Lab was awarded both the Best Overall and Early Career Researcher poster for show casing her work on dispersal in the benthic seastars, Labidiaster radiosus and Labidiaster annulatus. Well done Nikki!

Jan and Ira were delighted to present a public lecture together at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in July, 2024. Together they tag teamed a lecture titled ‘Genomics for exploring change and connections through space and time’ about how we can use the genomes of marine animals, including corals and octopods, to investigate their evolution and adaptation to past environments, and give insights into the future.

The audience was very engaged and asked us both tough questions about genetics, corals, octopods and climate change. So how many corals ARE there Ira.?

Jan and Sally were delighted to be shortlisted along with their colleagues Nerida Wilson, (CSIRO) Tim Naish and Nick Golledge (bth Victoria University of Wellington) for the Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research! Unfortunately we did not win, but had a great night all the same. A video explaining our science is here.

Sally Lau opened the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) conference in Pucón, Chile this year with a Plenary Lecture! Sally’s Lecture was the prestigious Weybrecht Lecture and was titled “Learning from the persistence of Southern Ocean benthic invertebrates”. Sally outlined her interdisciplinary work, published in Science, to show how genomics can be used to address past West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse.

Jan was delighted to receive the SCAR medal for Education and Communication for initiating and coordinating the Women in Antarctic Research Wikibomb. The wikibomb contributed over 100 new detailed biographies of Antarctic women researchers to Wikipedia and sought to raise their profile and celebrate their achievement.

by Jesselyn Brown

Often in science, it is assumed most of the big discoveries happen out in the field, on glorious expeditions into the unknown. While this is an essential step in research, most of the discoveries are made afterwards, where researchers spend months to years compiling their collected data into a coherent, well curated paper for the scientific community.   Such is the case for the Antarctic marine invertebrate samples collected for the Marine Omics’ group!  Rosie and Jesselyn have been sampling tissue for genomic analyses and preserving specimens for the Museum of Tropical Queensland in JCU’s own Townsville (Bebegu Yumba) Campus; a far stretch in distance and weather from Antarctica!

Rosie (left) and Jesselyn (right) dissecting tissue from echinoderms collected from Heard and McDonald Islands

Each specimen has to be appropriately sampled for genomic analysis and preserved for the museum’s collection. Some of the jarred specimens will eventually be on display for the public, allowing visualization of the creatures living below the ice. However, the most critical part of the project comes from the tiny tissue samples collected before the specimens are preserved.

For example, these echinoderms, as seen on Jesselyn’s dissection board, have tissue samples taken from their arms and from their tube feet.  Although infinitesimally small, such DNA houses a wealth of information! This may reveal anything from population dynamics, evolutionary tracks and divergence records, survival rates over time, and occasionally, enable the prediction of species survival through a rapidly changing climate via paleorecords. These samples will play a vital role in piecing together genetic databases and allowing scientists to develop a deeper understanding of Antarctic fauna!