Speaker
Description
Metabarcoding, the sequencing of marker genes from environmental samples to identify the or-ganisms present, is central to biodiversity and environmental research, and its data volumes are growing quickly. Turning these data into a lasting, shareable resource depends on keeping se-quences, their metadata, and analyses connected and archive-ready, which remains difficult to do consistently across groups and tools.
O2A SEQUENCES (https://sequences.o2a-data.de) provides this missing layer. Embedded in AWI's O2A (Observations to Analysis and Archives) framework, it manages raw sequences from ingestion to archive submission. Researchers upload their sequences and complete a standardized set of metadata fields aligned with the HARMONise schema (https://harmonise.awi.de), which builds on the MIxS standard. The platform runs standard, pre-configured workflows reproducibly, and it lowers the barrier to archiving by assembling raw se-quences together with their metadata into submission-ready files that follow European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and German Federation for Biological Data (GFBio) conventions.
Offered as software-as-a-service, O2A SEQUENCES makes metabarcoding data FAIR, AI-ready, and reusable across centers, providing a foundation for sustainable research-data man-agement that extends to other environmental data types.