The Hakai Genomics Lab is a purpose-built biodiversity genomics facility. We have specialized expertise and infrastructure required to carry out all steps in the analysis of DNA and RNA from many types of environmental samples, including seawater, sediment, and single/bulk organisms.
Laboratory designed for production, for conducting standardized analysis at high volume and quality.
Purpose
Amplicon Sequencing (Metabarcoding)
We use amplicon sequencing of seawater, sediment, and bulk animal samples to quantify community composition. This is our standard approach for tracking changes in biodiversity through time and across different locations.
We currently have amplicon pipelines optimized to target communities of bacteria, protists, marine invertebrates, fish, insects, and mammals.
Targeted Species-Specific eDNA Assays
We use qPCR-based approaches to infer the presence and relative abundance of focal taxa of interest.
A representative use-case is the early detection and monitoring of invasive European green crab from seawater samples.
Transcriptomics on single cells
Understanding the diversity and evolutionary relationships of protists requires data from many locations across the genome. We use this pipeline to sequence RNA-derived whole transcriptomes from single-celled organisms.
Where amplicon (metabarcoding) targets one gene from many organisms, single-cell work does the inverse, targeting many genes from a single organism.
RNA Baits for Sample Enrichment
Inferring historical communities from ancient DNA samples requires specialized tools. The use of RNA baits improves our ability to detect the presence of key taxa in our samples.
DNA Barcoding / Sanger Sequencing
None of our work in eDNA or aDNA metabarcoding would be possible without high-quality well-curated genetic reference databases such as BOLD at the University of Guelph. Our DNA Barcoding workflow provides a framework for generating a reference DNA sequences for under-studied taxonomic groups (especially marine invertebrates).
