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Molecular characterization of microbes in the center of barnacle footprints (part I): Molecular characterization of microbes in the center of barnacle footprints (part I): a case study for (under)graduate student laboratory research training

There is a barnacle larva settlement model in which barnacle cyprid selectively locates itself only on a specific marine biofilm area that contains specific microbes. That means a local biofilm site with specific characteristics can attract barnacle larva to the maximum. If this is true, a barnacle already growing up shall still press down a chunk of biofilm area where it settles when it was a cyprid. The chunk of biofilm should be at the center of barnacle footprint and may still contain most of the microbes at the attachment site. By this consideration, a group of such chunks of barnacle cement (with about 2mm diameter) was collected from the center of barnacle footprints, followed by genomic DNA extraction, PCR amplification with primers representing prokaryotes, eukaryotes, archaea and fungus, DNA sequencing and species determination. The most abundant 13 species were preliminarily determined (mainly fungi). Whether they are really wanted target microbes largely depends on future investigations on whether they possess some common features that can attract barnacle cyprids. This investigation provided a case study for undergraduate or graduate student to go through a laboratory research process: planning, design, sampling, data collection, experimental techniques, data statistics, and manuscript/report writing.