eDNAmap: A Metabarcoding Web Tool for Comparing Marine Biodiversity, With Special Reference to Teleost Fish

Area of Science:

• Marine ecology
• Bioinformatics
• Genomics

Background:

• Marine environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding data are increasingly available, offering insights into species distribution and community composition.
• Existing data lack a centralized platform for effective utilization, analysis, and accumulation, hindering comprehensive marine biodiversity assessments.
• Remote and understudied marine environments generate valuable eDNA data that require specialized tools for interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop eDNAmap, a web-based platform for analyzing and storing marine eDNA metabarcoding data.
• To provide tools for visualizing sampling locations, identifying batch effects, and performing community analyses.
• To facilitate species distribution mapping and comparative biodiversity assessments in marine ecosystems.

Main Methods:

• Development of a web-based platform (eDNAmap) integrating data analysis and storage functionalities.
• Implementation of automated features for plotting sampling sites, generating heatmaps for batch effect evaluation, and performing nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and cluster analyses.
• Inclusion of a database of teleost fish from the Northwestern Pacific, with flexibility for incorporating data from other marine taxa.

Main Results:

• eDNAmap enables users to upload and analyze marine eDNA metabarcoding data, including species or sequence composition with location information.
• The platform visualizes sampling locations, detects potential batch effects, and performs community structure analyses using similarity indices.
• Case study successfully verified the existence of the Watase line using fish eDNA data, demonstrating the platform's utility.

Conclusions:

• eDNAmap provides a crucial resource for the effective analysis and management of marine eDNA metabarcoding data.
• The platform supports the identification of species distributions and comparative biodiversity studies, enhancing ecological interpretations.
• eDNAmap's flexible design accommodates various marine organisms, promoting cross-taxa biogeographic pattern detection and the identification of environmental drivers.