BYTE-SEA

The field of genomics has undergone a major revolution over the past 20 years, providing new insights into the biological and biochemical diversity of life. The declining cost of DNA sequencing has enabled the launch of ambitious new analysis programs and the discovery of new biological species. In the field of marine science, exploring diversity represents a major challenge, as only about 10% of marine species are known and only about 100 high-quality genomes of marine organisms have been made available to the scientific community.

The ATLASea program aims to decipher and exploit the colossal wealth of information from marine species along the French coast. Four thousand five hundred marine species, with a high coverage of mainland species but also including species from overseas territories, will be sampled by the DIVE-SEA Targeted Project (PC1). The samples will be entrusted to the SEQ-SEA Targeted Project (PC2) teams to produce genome assemblies associated with high-quality structural annotations.
The BYTE-SEA Targeted Project (PC3) will centralize all genomic data produced by the ATLASea project into a single portal and integrate the genomes of related organisms sequenced by other consortia. It will ensure data interoperability and security, and facilitate their dissemination and use in accordance with the FAIR and Open Science principles.
The developed environment will thus provide access to genome sequencing data from marine organisms. The data made available will include information on the genomic sequence, genes, and coding and non-coding regions. The portal will also offer tools for sequence searches, genome analysis, genome comparison, and data visualization. It will track the project’s progress and provide a steering tool for consortium members and a monitoring tool for the community.