Environmental DNA of deep-sea corals from the U.S. West Coast. seawater metagenome

Deep-sea corals are a valuable source of habitat in the deep ocean, yet remain difficult to study, due to the difficulty inherent in to working in the deep marine environment. Additionally, the high degree of taxonomic uncertainty and morphological variation in the group make the difficult to identify to the species level during traditional visual surveys. This study sequences amplicons from eDNA obtained in the presence of deep-sea corals, and uses these sequences to identify corals to the lowest possible taxonomic level. This method provides an additional tool to the study of deep-sea corals.