After so many compelling customer projects for microbial genomes, it’s been rewarding to see more scientists turning to Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) Sequencing for larger genomes, such as plants and animals. Many PacBio users are performing de novo sequencing and assembly or upgrading draft genomes initially generated by short-read technologies. Extraordinarily long reads and throughput improvements have allowed scientists to affordably assemble and close genomes such as the Atlantic cod, spinach, and Orpinomyces, an anaerobic fungus found in the rumen of cows, to name a few.
As reported by several customers at the 2014 Plant & Animal Genome conference in San Diego, new features of SMRT Sequencing, including the ability to identify full-length isoforms and automate haplotyping, are making it possible for researchers to generate high-quality, contiguous assemblies with improved genome annotations. A more holistic view offers scientists better insights into individual gene functions and their coordination within networks.
To help scientists working on these kinds of projects, we’ve added a new web resource intended to be a repository of scientific information relevant to plant and animal genome sequencing projects. This page includes new publications, webinars, customer case studies, data releases, and news.
The page includes examples like this paper from PLoS One, describing long-read sequencing of chicken transcripts and identification of new transcript isoforms, or this initiative to generate more than 300x coverage of the budgerigar, an Australian parakeet used as a model for neuroscience and behavioral studies. For budgerigar, the scientists combined SMRT Sequencing with optical maps and assembled some of the largest genomic scaffolds to date for a bird.
If you’re working with plant or animal genomes, we invite you to take a minute to visit our new page that will be continuously updated and learn more about how other scientists are using the PacBio® RS II system for this kind of research.