Marine sediment sample, 18S and 16S amplicons Targeted Locus (Loci). marine sediment metagenome

18S rRNA is the most frequently used marker in eukaryotic environmental barcoding, because conserved flanking regions allow the use of universal primers. However, the divergence in the 18S gene is not always high enough to enable species identification. Moreover, chimera formation during PCR amplification is higher in richer and more genetically diverse samples. So, there is a need to evaluate the use of taxonomic group-specific primers/markers and show their effectiveness in the identification of Polychaetes (phylum Annelida), which play an important role in biomonitoring the marine environmental quality. Sample collected on the Dutch coast (N 52o 53’ O 4o 52’) in April 2012, divided in a macro-benthos and micro-benthos fraction.