Author(s): Kyle Cink, Sara England
Mentor(s): Rodolfo Probst
Institution U of U
Natural products exhibit greater chemical diversity than synthetic compounds. Marine micromollusks – organisms measuring less than 1 cm – represent a promising yet largely unexplored source of these bioactive compounds. Despite their abundance, these organisms remain understudied, especially in Southeast Asia, a region rich in micromolluscan diversity. This lack of systematic research highlights a critical need to establish Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) and catalog the biodiversity of these organisms to support future bioprospecting efforts. We focused on establishing OTUs via the molecular identification of micromollusk specimens collected from the Philippines using the traditional technique known as lumun lumun. This method involves using bundled fishing nets to capture micromollusks. These bundled nets are generally left underwater for extended periods (1-6 months). Upon retrieval, fishermen sift through the nets to collect and dry specimens, which are then sold to wholesalers. Our study aimed to assess the feasibility of extracting short DNA fragments from these specimens for next-generation sequencing (NGS) using an in-house nanopore sequencing pipeline. Using custom-indexed DNA primers and a pool of 43 specimens, our pipeline successfully sequenced mitochondrial DNA barcodes (~658 base pairs) for 23 lumun lumun specimens. These sequences were matched to existing barcodes via the NCBI Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, and OTUs assigned to three families: Triphoridae, Cerithiidae, and Columbellidae. This implementation of our in-house nanopore sequencing pipeline validates its utility for molecular taxonomy, complementing limited traditional morphological approaches in cataloging micromolluscan diversity. Our finding underscores the potential of lumun lumun-derived specimens for high-throughput molecular analyses, paving the way for systematic taxonomic resolution within diverse marine families of micromollusks. Moreover, given the known presence of bioactive compounds in these organisms, our study represents a foundational step towards uncovering novel bioactive agents with possible therapeutic applications.