Citizen Science

Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) is an ambitious project aiming to sequence the whole genomes of approximately 77,000 eukaryotic organisms in the British Isles, including animals, plants and fungi. We can use genomic data to understand the evolution of the diversity of life, to explore the biology of organisms and ecosystems, to aid conservation efforts and to provide new tools for medicine and biotechnology.

DToL’s work is the UK’s contribution to the Earth Biogenome Project and a collaboration between world-leading scientific institutions, led by the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge. All data generated from DToL is publicly available and can be tracked on the DToL data portal.  

The following videos aim to cover how invertebrate specimens are sent, processed and analysed through the Natural History Museum - DToL pipeline. However, they can be used as a general guide in terms of how to collect live material and process it for DNA barcoding and whole genome sequencing.

Resources and discussion group for the Centre for UK Nature's Nature Overheard Interns.