DE NOVO SEQUENCING OF “UNCONVENTIONAL” SPECIES - PROMISES, PROGRESS AND PITFALLS

 CASUAL SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

The recent rapid development of new sequencing technologies has made it possible to sequence many more genomes than ever before. Simultaneous decrease in the cost for data storage and computational power has made genome and transcriptome sequencing accessible and affordable to a wider group of scientists. The exponential increase in sequence data deposited in public databases and the increase in number of taxa for which sequence data is now available is evidence to this progress.
However, these new developments have also changed the distribution of resources that goes into any sequencing project. Where previously the preparation of libraries and actual generation of the sequence data was the expensive part, nowadays a higher fraction of the budget needs to be allocated for data storage and analysis costs due to the change of the types of data and the amount of data that is produced.
The switch to sequencing technologies that generate much more data but with short read lengths (or with lower base quality) poses new problems for assembly. These problems are especially evident for genome sequencing projects on species where little is previously known and for highly complex, large and repetitive genomes.
The talk will cover some important aspects of sequencing new “unconventional” model species with focus on projects carried out by a small community with limited budget and show real world examples from my own experience with assembly of several different marine species.

[Host: Rui Faria, Population Genetics, Hybridization and Speciation]

Image credits: Juan Hurtado