Australian BioCommons and Southern eDNA Society partner to deploy national infrastructure
Australian BioCommons and the Southern eDNA Society (SeDNAS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acknowledge, and work towards, the shared infrastructure challenges faced by life science researchers performing eDNA analysis. By collaborating with the community to document the current research landscape, this partnership aims to deploy national-scale bioinformatics infrastructure that supports life science researchers across Australia and New Zealand.
Southern eDNA Society logo
What is eDNA and why is this needed?
Environmental DNA (eDNA) involves the capture of nucleic acids from an environment, such as water, soil or air, to identify the organism in that environment without needing to visually observe them. This method allows researchers to cost-effectively monitor biodiversity, track invasive pests, and detect rare species over large areas with minimal disturbance to the organisms (such as animals or bacteria) being identified.
However, the rapid adoption of these methods across academia, government, and industry has created a pressing need to better coordinate the digital infrastructure and data resources required to support this growing community. eDNA analysis generates massive amounts of data that requires comparison to curated reference databases, such as GOLD (Genomes OnLine Database) and SILVA. As such, practitioners are facing challenges regarding the availability and coordination of the necessary digital infrastructure.
The partnership between SeDNAS and Australian BioCommons
To leverage combined expertise and resources, this partnership brings together the SeDNAS community of experts and practitioners with the bioinformatics infrastructure experience of Australian BioCommons. The collaboration recognises that science benefits from researchers working together, and that shared national infrastructure can help alleviate the identified challenge.
Next steps: building the roadmap
Key activities to support the eDNA community include:
Community consultation engagement activities, such as surveys and community meetings, to collect the specific bioinformatics infrastructure requirements of life science researchers
Strategic planning to develop targeted, community-endorsed infrastructure roadmaps that describe the national bioinformatics research infrastructure needed to support the field
Capacity building by raising awareness of existing infrastructure and collaborating on priorities such as training, upskilling, and data resource development.
