Journal Article

A comparative genomics multitool for scientific discovery and conservation

Casewell, Nicholas R., Garber, Manuel, Turner-Maier, Jason, Hubley, Robert, Genereux, Diane P., Goodman, Linda, Serres, Aitor, Kivioja, Teemu, Marinescu, Voichita D., Steiner, Cynthia C., Birren, Bruce, Smit, Arian F. A., Haerty, Wilfried, Johnson, Jeremy, Noh, Hyun Ji, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Bejerano, Gill, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Swofford, Ross, Chemnick, Leona G., Damas, Joana, Shapiro, Beth, Pollard, Katherine S., Fiddes, Ian T., Armstrong, Joel, Kuderna, Lukas F. K., Diekhans, Mark, Paten, Benedict, Lander, Eric S., Karlsson, Elinor K., Springer, Mark S., Murén, Eva, Gladyshev, Vadim N., Di Palma, Federica, Lewin, Harris A., Nash, Will, Alfoldi, Jessica, Taipale, Jussi, Houck, Marlys L., Murphy, William J., Nweeia, Martin, Teeling, Emma C., Pfenning, Andreas R., Ray, David A., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Juan, David, Meadows, Jennifer R. S., Ryder, Oliver A.

2020

Overview

The Zoonomia Project is investigating the genomics of shared and specialized traits in eutherian mammals. Here we provide genome assemblies for 131 species, of which all but 9 are previously uncharacterized, and describe a whole-genome alignment of 240 species of considerable phylogenetic diversity, comprising representatives from more than 80% of mammalian families. We find that regions of reduced genetic diversity are more abundant in species at a high risk of extinction, discern signals of evolutionary selection at high resolution and provide insights from individual reference genomes. By prioritizing phylogenetic diversity and making data available quickly and without restriction, the Zoonomia Project aims to support biological discovery, medical research and the conservation of biodiversity. A whole-genome alignment of 240 phylogenetically diverse species of eutherian mammal—including 131 previously uncharacterized species—from the Zoonomia Project provides data that support biological discovery, medical research and conservation.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 45 / 45/23 / 631/114/2785 / 631/158/2464 / 631/181/2474 / 631/181/757 / 631/208/212/748 / Analysis / Animals / Biodiversity / Biomedical Research / Cancer / Comparative analysis / Conservation / Conservation of Natural Resources - methods / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Disease / DNA sequencing / Endangered & extinct species / Eutheria - classification / Eutheria - genetics / Eutherians / Evolution / Evolution, Molecular / Extinction, Biological / Genetic aspects / Genetic diversity / Genetic Speciation / Genetic Variation / Genomes / Genomic libraries / Genomics / Genomics - methods / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Infections / Knowledge Discovery - methods / Loss of Heterozygosity / Mammals / Medical research / multidisciplinary / Neoplasms / Nucleotide sequencing / Phylogenetics / Phylogeny / Risk Assessment / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Selection, Genetic / Sequence Alignment / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Species / Species diversity / Species extinction / Species Specificity / Venoms / Wildlife conservation