Blog
February 20, 2018
Pre-AGBT workshop: Reference genomes and diversity representation
We can’t resist a good reference genome, so the pre-AGBT workshop entitled “Updating Reference Assemblies: New Technologies, New Sources of Diversity” was right up our alley. Hosted by the McDonnell…
February 9, 2018
JGI sequencing fungus for clues to better biofuel production
The Department of Energy has its eyes on an unassuming solution to our bioenergy needs: Aspergillus. The fungal genus contains hundreds of variations, which include powerful pathogens, industrial cell factories,…
February 7, 2018
Review: SMRT sequencing ‘is revolutionizing’ human sequencing applications
A new review in Nucleic Acids Research offers a sweeping look at human sequencing applications for SMRT Sequencing, finding that “[t]he myth that SMRT sequencing is too error prone ……
February 5, 2018
Illuminating the origin and evolution of bioluminescence
A project that sparked widespread interest and a successful science crowdsourcing campaign has inspired an international collaboration that produced two high-quality reference genomes, as well as a draft genome of…
January 29, 2018
Small creature, massive genome: Axolotl offers insights into regeneration
The Mexican salamander, or the axolotl, may have tiny feet, but the feat of decoding its genetic footprint was huge—32 billion base pairs huge, making it ten times bigger than…
January 17, 2018
SOLVE-RD Funded to Improve Diagnosis of Rare Disease with New Tools Including Long-Read Sequencing
The SOLVE-RD research program, a collaboration of 21 participant organizations in 10 nations, announced it has received a €15 million grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 initiative. SOLVE-RD aims…
January 15, 2018
When a single reference is not enough
Maize is amazingly diverse. A study comparing genome segments from two inbred lines, for instance, revealed that half of the sequence and one-third of the gene content was not shared…
January 9, 2018
Carnivorous plant relies on tandem duplications for adaptation
Scientists from the University at Buffalo, Nanyang Technological University, and other institutions published results from an effort to elucidate the Utricularia gibba genome using SMRT Sequencing. U. gibba, also known…
January 5, 2018
PMWC 2018: Sequencing Improvements Power Large-Scale Studies and Clinical Assays
One of our favorite January traditions is taking part in the Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC), a three-day Silicon Valley event focused on exploring challenges and opportunities in personalized medicine….
January 4, 2018
Collaborative effort results in high-quality mosquito genome, raising hope for infectious disease control
In an unprecedented crowd-sourced effort stoked by social media, 72 scientists collaborated via 25 conference calls and 3,323 emails to produce a new high-quality Aedes aegypti mosquito genome. Assembled using…
January 3, 2018
Alternative splicing analysis reveals isoforms associated with FMR1 repeat expansion
In a recent publication, scientists from the University of California, Davis, and PacBio reported results from an investigation of alternative splicing associated with a repeat expansion in the gene linked…
December 28, 2017
New nematode assembly simplifies search for evolutionary clues
Nematodes are both simple and complex, making them one of the most attractive animal taxa to study basic biological processes, including genome evolution. Studies in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, for…
December 21, 2017
New assembly of wheat progenitor offers clues to genome evolution
Following on the heels of the first nearly complete assembly of the hexaploid bread wheat genome, scientists from the University of California, Davis, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Johns Hopkins…
December 20, 2017
Lucky winners: Five more species to receive SMRT sequencing at Sanger Institute
Scientists championed their cases, school children sifted through species, and thousands of members of the public from around the globe took to social media to weigh in. Now the results…
December 14, 2017
A Fish Tale: Centromeres Prove Central to the Divergence of a Species
The ability to study the speciation of an animal in real-time is a dream come true for evolutionary and developmental biologists. A group of Japanese researchers has gotten that opportunity,…