MinION DNA barcoding to compare biome on microplastics collected Mediterranean Sea (IL) in every season for 2 years (2022-2021)

In this study, we implemented a metabarcoding approach to compare the biomes on microplastics collected from the Mediterranean Sea (Herzliya, Israel) in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn for 2 years, 2020 and 2021.Samples were amplified with 16s or 18s primers to target prokaryotes as well as eukaryotic taxonomic groups, and sequenced using the MinION nanopore platform with multiplexing. The reads were subjected to an adapted bioinformatic pipeline to achieve optimal taxonomic characterization of the plastisphere in different seasons.