Department Aquatic Ecology

Ongoing ocean acidification is one of the largest threats to marine biodiversity. In this project, we are investigating the (epi)genomic signatures of adaptation to ocean acidification in Patella limpets occurring in naturally acidified sites. We generated a near chromosome-scale reference genome of P. caerulea and annotated it using transcriptomic evidence (Halstead-Nussloch et al, 2024).

We then generated epigenomic data for over 80 Patella individuals (P. caerulea and P. ulyssiponensis), together with pooled whole-genome resequencing for both species. We are currently investigating the genes and functions involved in tolerance and adaptation to ocean acidification, and we are testing if tolerance is due to local adaptation or adaptive phenotypic plasticity.