The 2010 Malaspina Expedition is an interdisciplinary research project with the overall goals to assess the impact of global change on the oceans and explore their biodiversity. Led by Carlos Duarte from the CSIC, the expedition collected more than 2,000 samples of microorganisms from different depths in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean.

The CNAG collaborates in this project through Malaspinomics, a project that is sequencing and analysing the metagenomes and metatranscriptomes from the ocean samples obtained. The sequencing works focus on the viruses, bacteria and protists that inhabit the ocean to 4,000 feet deep. Preliminary results of Malaspinomics reveal a wealth of previously unknown species of microorganisms in the deep ocean. Specifically, 60% of the bacterial species detected by deep-ocean massive sequencing techniques are unknown.

This collection of marine microbial genomics, the world's first at a global scale, will provide new keys to a reservoir of unexplored biodiversity, as it could mean the finding of tens of millions of new genes in the coming years.

Image by the CSIC

Video of the project