Marine Conservation in the Genomic Era

The word genome refers to all genetic material, both in the form of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or Ribonucleic acid (RNA) found in living things. To extract the information contained in genetic material, several stages are required. These stages consist of the extraction processes which aims to remove genetic material from the cell and the amplification / duplication stage which aims to duplicate the target gene. The obtained data could be analyzed using various methods and software depending on the research objectives such as species identification, genetic connectivity, population structure, taxonomy, and tracking the origin of species (traceability). The advantage of genetic-based methods is that it only requires a small amount of tissue from the organisms. In some cases, DNA from organisms is taken from the environment such as soil, feces, and water (often called environmental DNA/e-DNA) so it does not harm the organism itself. Therefore, genetic data are widely used to uncover several questions in the field of marine and fisheries. The following are some applications of genetic data used to support conservation activities in the field of marine and fisheries.

1. Species Identification

Species identification based on morphological and anatomical characteristics requires special expertise to observe in detail the body parts of an organism and describe it clearly. Therefore, the process of describing just one species will take a long time. The identification process will be even more difficult for some species that have similar morphological characteristics. To deal with these challenges, DNA barcoding methods were applied to identify species based on DNA sequences. The process is quite simple, the researcher only needs to comparing their sequence data with available online databases provided by GenBank (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) or Barcode of Life Data System (https: //www.boldsystems .org /). This method is also applied to forensic genetics in the marine field, for example, to detect endangered species that are illegally traded. Several cases of smuggling animal body parts such as turtles and sharks were revealed using this approach. In addition, to describe a large number of marine life, the DNA metabarcoding method can be used to identify hundreds or even thousands of species at once.

2. Detection of the marine invasive species

The high shipping activities and export-import activities of marine biota for aquariums, aquaculture, and the seafood industry play a major role in the introduction of marine biota far from where the species originated. In suitable habitat, this introduced species can develop rapidly and have a negative impact on the surrounding ecosystem so that it is said to be invasive. Studies show that invasive species harm ecosystems because they can prey on or compete with native species for several resources. The rate of the spread of invasive species in marine ecosystems is quite high. Therefore, various countries in the world are struggling to minimize the spread of introduced species in their respective countries. Genetic tools can facilitate the process of identifying and tracing the origin of the invasive species. Genetic diversity often used as an indicator to distinguish between native and introduced species. Introduced species generally have a lower number of genetic diversity than native species whose populations have been formed for quite a long time. Meanwhile, the origin of the invasive species can also be traced by comparing genetic data from the introduction location with the region that has been hypothesized as the origin of the species. If both locations have high genetic similarities, the original location of the invasive species can be determined.

3. Design of the Marine Protected Area (MPA)