Exploring the potential of mRNA for taxonomic delineation of marine benthic eukaryotes.

Direct sequencing of mRNA isolated from environmental samples has been commonly used to analyze the functional activity of ambient communities and, occasionally used for taxonomic identification. Here we assess the viability of using mRNA for investigating the species composition of marine benthic eukaryotes. Total RNA was extracted from sediments sampled close to fish farms and mRNA was sequenced after poly-A enrichment on an Illumina MiSeq sequencer.