Global Ocean Sampling Expedition Explained

The Global Ocean Sampling Expedition (GOS) is an ocean exploration genome project whose goal is to assess genetic diversity in marine microbial communities and to understand their role in nature's fundamental processes. The two-year journey, which used Craig Venter's personal yacht, originated in Halifax, Canada, circumnavigated the globe and terminated in the U.S. in January 2006. The expedition sampled water from Halifax, Nova Scotia to the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. During 2007, sampling continued along the west coast of North America.

Data analysis

The GOS datasets were submitted to both NCBI^[1] and Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA), a new online resource for marine metagenomics funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, developed by JCVI and hosted by UC San Diego's Division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). CAMERA's toolset was developed by JCVI, and reflects the tools used in the initial publication of the GOS datasets.

Funding

The Sorcerer II effort has been funded by:

• the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (sequencing and analysis)^[2]
• the United States Department of Energy, Office of Science (sequencing and analysis)^[2]
• The J. Craig Venter Institute (vessel operation)^[2]
• Moore Foundation seven-year, $24.5 million, grant (CAMERA)^[2]

Vessel

Sorcerer II, a 95-foot sloop, completed a 2-year scientific expedition circumnavigating the globe in mid latitudes collecting samples of microbes in seawater for genetic sequencing and cataloguing. She was designed to be not just a world cruising yacht, but one that would be capable of handling the extremes in latitudes, from equatorial heat and humidity to latitudes between 60 and 70 degrees. SORCERER II's construction is light for performance, but very strong, with her kevlar and E glass laminates, epoxy bonding and carefully chosen core materials.

The vessel was designed by German Frers and carries 2400L of water.

Publications

The following list is of the official publications of the project and the J. Craig Venter Institute.

• 10.1126/science.1093857 . 15001713 . Environmental Genome Shotgun Sequencing of the Sargasso Sea . 2 April 2004 . Venter . JC . Craig Venter . . 304 . 5667 . 66–74 . 0193-4511 . . New York, New York . Remington . K . Heidelberg . JF . Halpern . AL . Rusch . D . Eisen . JA . Wu . D . Paulsen . I . Nelson . KE. 8 . 2004Sci...304...66V. 1454587 . free .
• 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050016 . The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Expanding the Universe of Protein Families . 13 March 2007 . Yooseph . S . Sutton . G . Rusch . DB . Halpern . AL . Williamson . SJ . Remington . K . Eisen . JA . Heidelberg . KB . Manning . G . 8. . 5 . 3 . e16 . 17355171 . 1821046 . 1544-9173 . . USA . free .
• 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050017 . 17355172 . 1821047 . Structural and Functional Diversity of the Microbial Kinome . 13 March 2007 . Kannan . N . Taylor . SS . Zhai . Y . Venter . JC . Craig Venter . Manning . G . . 5 . 3 . e17 . 1544-9173 . . USA . free .
• 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050077 . The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Northwest Atlantic through Eastern Tropical Pacific . 13 March 2007 . Rusch . DB . Halpern . AL . Sutton . G . Heidelberg . KB . Williamson . S . Yooseph . S . Wu . D . Eisen . JA . Hoffman . JM . 8. PLOS Biology . 5 . 3 . e77 . 1544-9173 . . USA . 17355176 . 1821060 . free .
• 17504484 . 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01265.x . Assessing diversity and biogeography of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria in surface waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans using the Global Ocean Sampling expedition metagenomes . 1 June 2007 . Yutin . N . Suzuki . MT . Teeling . H. Weber . M . Venter . JC . Craig Venter . Rusch . DB . Béjà . O . . 9 . 6 . 1464–75 . 1462-2912 . . England. 2007EnvMi...9.1464Y .
• 10.1038/ismej.2007.67 . 1 October 2007 . Sharon . I . Tzahor . S . Williamson . S. Shmoish . M . Man-Aharonovich . D . Rusch . DB . Yooseph . S . Zeidner . G . Golden . SS . 8. . 1 . 6 . 492–501 . 18043651 . England . . 1751-7362 . Viral photosynthetic reaction center genes and transcripts in the marine environment. free . 2007ISMEJ...1..492S .
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0001456 . 18213365 . 2186209 . The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Metagenomic Characterization of Viruses within Aquatic Microbial Samples . 23 January 2008 . Williamson . SJ . Rusch . DB . Yooseph . S . Halpern . AL . Heidelberg . KB . Glass . JI . Andrews-Pfannkoch . C . Fadrosh . D . Miller . CS . 8. . 3 . 1 . e1456 . 1932-6203 . . USA. 2008PLoSO...3.1456W . Hall . Neil . free .
• 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2008.01626.x . It's all relative: ranking the diversity of aquatic bacterial communities . 10 September 2008 . Shaw . AK . Halpern . AL . Beeson . K . Tran . B . Venter . JC . Craig Venter . Martiny . JBH . . 10 . 9 . 2200–10 . 1462-2912 . . England . 18637951. 2008EnvMi..10.2200S .

See also

• Landform
• Microorganisms
• Metagenomics

External links

• • Official blog of the 2009–10 leg
• A large picture of Venter on the stern of the Sorcerer II
• GOS data from CAMERA

Notes and References

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=genomeprj&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Overview&list_uids=13694 Global Ocean Sampling Expedition project at the J. Craig Venter Institute, Project ID 13694
2. https://archive.today/20130416143509/http://www.venterinstitute.org/press/news/news_2007_03_13.php More than Six Million New Genes, Thousands of New Protein Families, and Incredible Degree of Microbial Diversity Discovered from First Phase of Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition