iii INTRODUCTION Abstracts from the 8th International Barcode of Life Conference in Trondheim, Norway The 8th International Barcode of Life Conference is gun sequencing is used to increase the genomic data held in Trondheim, Norway, 17–20 June 2019, marking available for >1000 species of plants from Norway and the second occasion this biennial conference series is neighbouring countries. This effort is creating a resource hosted on the European continent. Building upon a com- for genomic and evolutionary study. Moreover, through munity history of meetings in South Africa (2017), Canada using environmental shotgun sequencing, some limita- (2015), China (2013), Australia (2011), Mexico (2009), Taiwan tions relating to PCR bias and taxonomic resolution can (2007), and the UK (2005), the 8th Conference will bring be overcome for studies of spatial and temporal patterns together 384 presenting authors from 57 countries to in plant communities. Understanding the interrelation- discuss the latest developments in DNA barcoding- ship between climate change, anthropogenic stressors, enabled biodiversity research and nature management. and biological diversity is of paramount contemporary The latest methodological advances in molecular tech- relevance given the rapid rate of environmental change niques and bioinformatics, socio-economically relevant in polar regions. applications of DNA barcoding and metabarcoding, as well as legislative frameworks and regulatory practices Methodological advances: environmental DNA will be covered. and genomics Multiple exciting contributions use DNA captured di- Spotlight on Norway and the North rectly from the environment (water, soil, air), i.e., envi- The 8th Conference naturally features strong repre- ronmental DNA (eDNA), to detect organisms. Research sentation of the Norwegian Barcode of Life Network directions include whole-community analysis through (NorBOL, www.norbol.org), a research and infrastructure eDNA metabarcoding as well as sensitive, species- network that has linked researchers from across Norway specific detection using quantitative PCR (qPCR). The for the past 12 years (Ekrem et al.). NorBOL, along with study of eDNA is opening new avenues for the non- several other especially well-developed national net- invasive monitoring of endangered species (e.g., Bracken For personal use only. works (e.g., Mexico, Germany), serves as a valuable et al.; Troth et al.); for the detection of invasive species model for nations building their own Barcode of Life (e.g., Lin et al.; Loeza-Quintana and Hanner); and for ex- Networks. With a diverse research program, NorBOL is ploring the diversity and ecosystem health of soils (e.g., notable in maintaining its momentum in building DNA Ariza et al.), freshwaters (e.g., Beentjes et al.; Majaneva barcode reference libraries. NorBOL has led the genera- et al.), and marine waters (e.g., Baillie et al.). An intrigu- tion of an increasingly comprehensive DNA barcode ref- ing new perspective involves the use of eRNA in biodi- erence library for the animals, plants, and fungi of versity science and conservation as a means of reading northern Europe as well as for the Arctic region more concurrently the taxonomic and transcriptomic profiles broadly, including in challenging marine groups (e.g., of complex, metabolically active biological assemblages annelids: Bakken et al., Budaeva et al.; echinoderms: (Cristescu; Kagzi et al.). Kongshavn et al.; bivalves: Skahjem and Bakken; inver- The 8th Conference also showcases methodological Genome Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by UNIV GUELPH on 07/17/19 tebrates and fish: Willassen et al.). These efforts serve as developments in DNA metabarcoding and biodiversity a valuable foundation for both fundamental research genomics. The plant research community is trending to- and diverse applications. wards metagenomics approaches, in which shotgun se- Targeted reference library building is being combined quencing is used (e.g., Alsos et al.; Bell et al.), as well as with methodological developments for working with an- plastid genomes (e.g., Fu et al.; Schroeder et al.; Sheng cient DNA from lake sediment cores (“sedaDNA”), result- et al.). Animal researchers are also increasingly explor- ing in novel insights into the history of Northern (e.g., ing mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) as superbar- Epp et al.) and Alpine (e.g., Garcés-Pastor et al.) regions. codes (e.g., Jiang and Liu; Yang et al.) and genomic Moreover, NorBOL researchers and collaborators are at shotgun sequencing methods (e.g., Nie et al.). However, the forefront in the continued expansion of genomic Singer and colleagues draw attention to the incom- representation beyond a few marker genes. Alsos and pleteness of reference databases for whole-community colleagues highlight “plant barcode 2.0”, whereby shot- aquatic metagenomics. Therefore, targeted sequencing Copyright remains with the author(s) or their institution(s). Permission for reuse (free in most cases) can be obtained from RightsLink. Genome 62: iii–iv (2019) dx.doi.org/10.1139/gen-2019-0097 Published by NRC Research Press iv Genome Vol. 62, 2019 of selected marker genes will likely remain an important ple, in a unique contribution in this conference series, method for biodiversity detection and taxonomic anno- Smitz et al. describe their work on DNA barcoding insect tation over the coming years. Important contributions in species that can serve as disease vectors in geographical the area of DNA metabarcoding methodological develop- regions where the Belgian military is deployed. The au- ment will be presented, including a large test of PCR thentication of commercial products—including fisher- primer performance for benthic freshwater inverte- ies species (e.g., Falcão et al.), herbal medicinal products brates (Elbrecht et al.). Experimental manipulations in (e.g., Priya et al.), and timber products (Radanielina and mesocosms advance our understanding of how fine-scale Rakotonirina)—remains a significant area of focus across taxonomic resolution from metabarcoding yields new nations. Efforts continue to characterize insect commu- knowledge of the response of biotic communities to mul- nities in agricultural landscapes and to develop efficient tiple stressors (e.g., Beermann et al.). Development and pest monitoring systems (e.g., deWaard et al.). testing of molecular biology protocols and bioinformat- The 8th Conference will also host the launch of the ics approaches remain active areas of research in me- BIOSCAN project (https://ibol.org/projects/bioscan), a ma- tabarcoding (e.g., Bohmann and Carøe; Brandt et al.). jor initiative to bring nations together to expand DNA Metabarcoding routines are now being rolled out for barcoding and biodiversity research (Hebert). A major specific national and international-scale biomonitoring and important development is increasing participation projects for aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity (e.g., of researchers from hyper-biodiverse nations in the In- deWaard et al.; Meissner et al.; Knowlton). ternational Barcode of Life community. Varied national While recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and institutional priorities are apparent among the con- technology open new avenues for large-scale biodiversity ference proceedings, showcasing how the methodologi- analysis, the increasing usage of large sequence datasets cal advances and databases built by the International also highlights the persistent limitations in taxonomic Barcode of Life community can be leveraged in diverse reference databases. Taxonomic annotation of DNA se- ways to understand, sustainably use, and preserve biodi- quence reads remains a challenge, particularly in under- versity. studied habitats, geographic regions, and taxonomic Acknowledgements groups. Several contributions on diverse taxonomic We would like to thank members of the Conference groups point out such deficiencies and call for more at- Organizing Committee, members of the Local Scientific tention towards populating reference databases and for Committee, members of the International Scientific further developing taxonomic assignment algorithms Committee, all reviewers, and colleagues for helping (e.g., Meyer et al.). High-quality taxonomic assignments with small and large tasks for the Conference (e.g., work- are essential for taxonomic groups of medical concern shops, media outreach, IT support, post-conference For personal use only. and for species regulated internationally, such as inva- tours, etc.). We are grateful for the support from all spon- sive species and agricultural pests (Hanner). By contrast, sors and funders, in particular the Norwegian Biodiver- Cordier and Pawlowski use supervised machine learning sity Information Centre, the Norwegian Environment methods to estimate indices of biotic ecosystem health, Agency, the NTNU University Museum, and the Research without relying on taxonomic assignment. With further Council of Norway. We also appreciate the support of acceleration in applications of metabarcoding and met- Canadian Science Publishing and the editorial staff of agenomics, including using ultra-deep sequencing plat- Genome for support for conference presentation prizes forms (e.g., Fahner et al.), it is expected that further and for this open-access special issue. development of taxonomy-free analytical methods will be of interest. Torbjørn Ekrem, Elisabeth Stur, Genome Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by UNIV GUELPH on 07/17/19 Humanity, biodiversity, and the Barcode of Life Torkild