Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Why Sequence All Eukaryotes?, Mark Blaxter, John M. Archibald, Anna K. Childers, Jonathan A. Coddington, Keith A. Crandall, Federica Di Palma, Richard Durbin, Scott V. Edwards, Jennifer A.M. Graves, Kevin J. Hackett, Neil Hall, Erich D. Jarvis, Rebecca N. Johnson, Elinor K. Karlsson, W. John Kress, Shigehiro Kuraku, Mara K. N. Lawniczak, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Jose V. Lopez, Nancy A. Moran, Gene E. Robinson, Oliver A. Ryder, Beth Shapiro, Pamela S. Soltis, Tandy Warnow, Guojie Zhang, Harris A. Lewin

Biology Faculty Articles

Life on Earth has evolved from initial simplicity to the astounding complexity we experience today. Bacteria and archaea have largely excelled in metabolic diversification, but eukaryotes additionally display abundant morphological innovation. How have these innovations come about and what constraints are there on the origins of novelty and the continuing maintenance of biodiversity on Earth? The history of life and the code for the working parts of cells and systems are written in the genome. The Earth BioGenome Project has proposed that the genomes of all extant, named eukaryotes—about 2 million species—should be sequenced to high quality to produce a …

Ultracontinuous Single Haplotype Genome Assemblies For The Domestic Cat (Felis Catus) And Asian Leopard Cat (Prionailurus Bengalensis), Kevin R. Bredemeyer, Andrew J. Harris, Gang Li, Le Zhao, Nicole M. Foley, Melody E. Roelke-Parker, Stephen James O'Brien, Leslie A. Lyons, Wesley C. Warren, William J. Murphy

Biology Faculty Articles

In addition to including one of the most popular companion animals, species from the cat family Felidae serve as a powerful system for genetic analysis of inherited and infectious disease, as well as for the study of phenotypic evolution and speciation. Previous diploid-based genome assemblies for the domestic cat have served as the primary reference for genomic studies within the cat family. However, these versions suffered from poor resolution of complex and highly repetitive regions, with substantial amounts of unplaced sequence that is polymorphic or copy number variable. We sequenced the genome of a female F1 Bengal hybrid cat, the …

The First Whole Genome And Transcriptome Of The Cinereous Vulture Reveals Adaptation In The Gastric And Immune Defense Systems And Possible Convergent Evolution Between The Old And New World Vultures, Oksung Chung, Seondeok Jin, Yun Sung Cho, Jeongheui Lim, Hyunho Kim, Sungwoong Jho, Hak-Min Kim, Jehoon Jun, Hyejin Lee, Alvin Chon, Junsu Ko, Jeremy Edwards, Jessica A. Weber, Kyudong Han, Stephen J. O'Brien, Andrea Manica, Jong Bhak, Woon Kee Paek

Biology Faculty Articles

Background: The cinereous vulture, Aegypius monachus, is the largest bird of prey and plays a key role in the ecosystem by removing carcasses, thus preventing the spread of diseases. Its feeding habits force it to cope with constant exposure to pathogens, making this species an interesting target for discovering functionally selected genetic variants. Furthermore, the presence of two independently evolved vulture groups, Old World and New World vultures, provides a natural experiment in which to investigate convergent evolution due to obligate scavenging.

Results: We sequenced the genome of a cinereous vulture, and mapped it to the bald …

Smilefinder: A Resampling-Based Approach To Evaluate Signatures Of Selection From Genome-Wide Sets Of Matching Allele Frequency Data In Two Or More Diploid Populations, Wilfred M. Guiblet, Kai Zhao, Stephen J. O'Brien, Steven E. Massey, Alfred L. Roca, T. K. Oleksyk

Biology Faculty Articles

Background: Adaptive alleles may rise in frequency as a consequence of positive selection, creating a pattern of decreased variation in the neighboring loci, known as a selective sweep. When the region containing this pattern is compared to another population with no history of selection, a rise in variance of allele frequencies between populations is observed. One challenge presented by large genome-wide datasets is the ability to differentiate between patterns that are remnants of natural selection from those expected to arise at random and/or as a consequence of selectively neutral demographic forces acting in the population.

Findings: SmileFinder is …