scholarly journals Long live the king: chromosome-level assembly of the lion (Panthera leo) using linked-read, Hi-C, and long read data

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellie E. Armstrong ◽  
Ryan W. Taylor ◽  
Danny E. Miller ◽  
Christopher Kaelin ◽  
Gregory Barsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Population ◽  
Domestic Cat ◽  
Panthera Leo ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Asiatic Lion ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Chromosome Level

AbstractThe lion (Panthera leo) is one of the most popular and iconic feline species on the planet, yet in spite of its popularity, the last century has seen massive declines for lion populations worldwide. Genomic resources for endangered species represent an important way forward for the field of conservation, enabling high-resolution studies of demography, disease, and population dynamics. Here, we present a chromosome-level assembly for the captive African lion from the Exotic Feline Rescue Center as a resource for current and subsequent genetic work of the sole social species of the Panthera clade. Our assembly is composed of 10x Genomics Chromium data, Dovetail Hi-C, and Oxford Nanopore long-read data. Synteny is highly conserved between the lion, other Panthera genomes, and the domestic cat. We find variability in the length and levels of homozygosity across the genomes of the lion sequenced here and other previous published resequence data, indicating contrasting histories of recent and ancient small population sizes and/or inbreeding. Demographic analyses reveal similar histories across all individuals except the Asiatic lion, which shows a more rapid decline in population size. This high-quality genome will greatly aid in the continuing research and conservation efforts for the lion.

scholarly journals Long live the king: chromosome-level assembly of the lion (Panthera leo) using linked-read, Hi-C, and long-read data

BMC Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellie E. Armstrong ◽  
Ryan W. Taylor ◽  
Danny E. Miller ◽  
Christopher B. Kaelin ◽  
Gregory S. Barsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reference Genome ◽  
Demographic History ◽  
Domestic Cat ◽  
Panthera Leo ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Runs Of Homozygosity ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Asiatic Lion ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Chromosome Level

Abstract Background The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the most popular and iconic feline species on the planet, yet in spite of its popularity, the last century has seen massive declines for lion populations worldwide. Genomic resources for endangered species represent an important way forward for the field of conservation, enabling high-resolution studies of demography, disease, and population dynamics. Here, we present a chromosome-level assembly from a captive African lion from the Exotic Feline Rescue Center (Center Point, IN) as a resource for current and subsequent genetic work of the sole social species of the Panthera clade. Results Our assembly is composed of 10x Genomics Chromium data, Dovetail Hi-C, and Oxford Nanopore long-read data. Synteny is highly conserved between the lion, other Panthera genomes, and the domestic cat. We find variability in the length of runs of homozygosity across lion genomes, indicating contrasting histories of recent and possibly intense inbreeding and bottleneck events. Demographic analyses reveal similar ancient histories across all individuals during the Pleistocene except the Asiatic lion, which shows a more rapid decline in population size. We show a substantial influence on the reference genome choice in the inference of demographic history and heterozygosity. Conclusions We demonstrate that the choice of reference genome is important when comparing heterozygosity estimates across species and those inferred from different references should not be compared to each other. In addition, estimates of heterozygosity or the amount or length of runs of homozygosity should not be taken as reflective of a species, as these can differ substantially among individuals. This high-quality genome will greatly aid in the continuing research and conservation efforts for the lion, which is rapidly moving towards becoming a species in danger of extinction.

scholarly journals Improving the Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens) in a University Master’s Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2179-2183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Prost ◽  
Malte Petersen ◽  
Martin Grethlein ◽  
Sarah Joy Hahn ◽  
Nina Kuschik-Maczollek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Assembly ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Siamese Fighting Fish ◽  
Betta Splendens ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Platform ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Chromosome Level

Ever decreasing costs along with advances in sequencing and library preparation technologies enable even small research groups to generate chromosome-level assemblies today. Here we report the generation of an improved chromosome-level assembly for the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) that was carried out during a practical university master’s course. The Siamese fighting fish is a popular aquarium fish and an emerging model species for research on aggressive behavior. We updated the current genome assembly by generating a new long-read nanopore-based assembly with subsequent scaffolding to chromosome-level using previously published Hi-C data. The use of ∼35x nanopore-based long-read data sequenced on a MinION platform (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) allowed us to generate a baseline assembly of only 1,276 contigs with a contig N50 of 2.1 Mbp, and a total length of 441 Mbp. Scaffolding using the Hi-C data resulted in 109 scaffolds with a scaffold N50 of 20.7 Mbp. More than 99% of the assembly is comprised in 21 scaffolds. The assembly showed the presence of 96.1% complete BUSCO genes from the Actinopterygii dataset indicating a high quality of the assembly. We present an improved full chromosome-level assembly of the Siamese fighting fish generated during a university master’s course. The use of ∼35× long-read nanopore data drastically improved the baseline assembly in terms of continuity. We show that relatively in-expensive high-throughput sequencing technologies such as the long-read MinION sequencing platform can be used in educational settings allowing the students to gain practical skills in modern genomics and generate high quality results that benefit downstream research projects.

scholarly journals Improving the chromosome-level genome assembly of the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) in a university Master’s course

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Prost ◽  
Malte Petersen ◽  
Martin Grethlein ◽  
Sarah Joy Hahn ◽  
Nina Kuschik-Maczollek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Assembly ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Siamese Fighting Fish ◽  
Betta Splendens ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Platform ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Chromosome Level

AbstractBackgroundEver decreasing costs along with advances in sequencing and library preparation technologies enable even small research groups to generate chromosome-level assemblies today. Here we report the generation of an improved chromosome-level assembly for the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) that was carried out during a practical university Master’s course. The Siamese fighting fish is a popular aquarium fish and an emerging model species for research on aggressive behaviour. We updated the current genome assembly by generating a new long-read nanopore-based assembly with subsequent scaffolding to chromosome-level using previously published HiC data.FindingsThe use of nanopore-based long-read data sequenced on a MinION platform (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) allowed us to generate a baseline assembly of only 1,276 contigs with a contig N50 of 2.1 Mbp, and a total length of 441 Mbp. Scaffolding using previously published HiC data resulted in 109 scaffolds with a scaffold N50 of 20.7 Mbp. More than 99% of the assembly is comprised in 21 scaffolds. The assembly showed the presence of 95.8% complete BUSCO genes from the Actinopterygii dataset indicating a high quality of the assembly.ConclusionWe present an improved full chromosome-level assembly of the Siamese fighting fish generated during a university Master’s course. The use of ~35× long-read nanopore data drastically improved the baseline assembly in terms of continuity. We show that relatively in-expensive high-throughput sequencing technologies such as the long-read MinION sequencing platform can be used in educational settings allowing the students to gain practical skills in modern genomics and generate high quality results that benefit downstream research projects.

Estimating the exposure of carnivorous plants to rapid climatic change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Aaron M. Ellison
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Change ◽  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
Species Distributions ◽  
Dispersal Limitation ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Carnivorous Plant ◽  
Carnivorous Plants ◽  
Habitat Specialization ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Suitable Habitats

Climatic change likely will exacerbate current threats to carnivorous plants. However, estimating the severity of climatic change is challenged by the unique ecology of carnivorous plants, including habitat specialization, dispersal limitation, small ranges, and small population sizes. We discuss and apply methods for modeling species distributions to overcome these challenges and quantify the vulnerability of carnivorous plants to rapid climatic change. Results suggest that climatic change will reduce habitat suitability for most carnivorous plants. Models also project increases in habitat suitability for many species, but the extent to which these increases may offset habitat losses will depend on whether individuals can disperse to and establish in newly suitable habitats outside of their current distribution. Reducing existing stressors and protecting habitats where numerous carnivorous plant species occur may ameliorate impacts of climatic change on this unique group of plants.

scholarly journals Chromosome-level genome assembly and structural variant analysis of two laboratory yeast strains from the Peterhof Genetic Collection lineage

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yury A Barbitoff ◽  
Andrew G Matveenko ◽  
Anton B Matiiv ◽  
Evgeniia M Maksiutenko ◽  
Svetlana E Moskalenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chromosomal Rearrangements ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Multiple Observations ◽  
Yeast Strains ◽  
Trace Back ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
History Of ◽  
Variant Analysis ◽  
Yeast Genomes

Abstract Thousands of yeast genomes have been sequenced with both traditional and long-read technologies, and multiple observations about modes of genome evolution for both wild and laboratory strains have been drawn from these sequences. In our study, we applied Oxford Nanopore and Illumina technologies to assemble complete genomes of two widely used members of a distinct laboratory yeast lineage, the Peterhof Genetic Collection (PGC), and investigate the structural features of these genomes including transposable element content, copy number alterations, and structural rearrangements. We identified numerous notable structural differences between genomes of PGC strains and the reference S288C strain. We discovered a substantial enrichment of mid-length insertions and deletions within repetitive coding sequences, such as in the SCH9 gene or the NUP100 gene, with possible impact of these variants on protein amyloidogenicity. High contiguity of the final assemblies allowed us to trace back the history of reciprocal unbalanced translocations between chromosomes I, VIII, IX, XI, and XVI of the PGC strains. We show that formation of hybrid alleles of the FLO genes during such chromosomal rearrangements is likely responsible for the lack of invasive growth of yeast strains. Taken together, our results highlight important features of laboratory yeast strain evolution using the power of long-read sequencing.

scholarly journals Hapo-G, haplotype-aware polishing of genome assemblies with accurate reads

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Aury ◽  
Benjamin Istace
Keyword(s):  
Single Molecule ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Errors ◽  
Coding Regions ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Long Reads ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Genome Assemblies

Abstract Single-molecule sequencing technologies have recently been commercialized by Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore with the promise of sequencing long DNA fragments (kilobases to megabases order) and then, using efficient algorithms, provide high quality assemblies in terms of contiguity and completeness of repetitive regions. However, the error rate of long-read technologies is higher than that of short-read technologies. This has a direct consequence on the base quality of genome assemblies, particularly in coding regions where sequencing errors can disrupt the coding frame of genes. In the case of diploid genomes, the consensus of a given gene can be a mixture between the two haplotypes and can lead to premature stop codons. Several methods have been developed to polish genome assemblies using short reads and generally, they inspect the nucleotide one by one, and provide a correction for each nucleotide of the input assembly. As a result, these algorithms are not able to properly process diploid genomes and they typically switch from one haplotype to another. Herein we proposed Hapo-G (Haplotype-Aware Polishing Of Genomes), a new algorithm capable of incorporating phasing information from high-quality reads (short or long-reads) to polish genome assemblies and in particular assemblies of diploid and heterozygous genomes.

Dual Isoform Sequencing Reveals a Multifaceted Transcriptional Architecture of a Prototype Baculovirus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gábor Torma ◽  
Dóra Tombácz ◽  
Norbert Moldován ◽  
Ádám Fülöp ◽  
István Prazsák ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Coding ◽  
Rna Molecules ◽  
Non Coding Rna ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Viral Genes ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Oxford Nanopore Technologies ◽  
Overlapping Transcripts

Abstract In this study, we used two long-read sequencing (LRS) techniques, Sequel from the Pacific Biosciences and MinION from Oxford Nanopore Technologies, for the transcriptional characterization of a prototype baculovirus, Autographacalifornica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus. LRS is able to read full-length RNA molecules, and thereby to distinguish between transcript isoforms, mono- and polycistronic RNAs, and overlapping transcripts. Altogether, we detected 875 transcripts, of which 759 are novel and 116 have been annotated previously. These RNA molecules include 41 novel putative protein coding transcript (each containing 5’-truncated in-frame ORFs), 14 monocistronic transcripts, 99 multicistronic RNAs, 101 non-coding RNA, and 504 length isoforms. We also detected RNA methylation in 12 viral genes and RNA hyper-editing in the longer 5’-UTR transcript isoform of ORF 19 gene.

scholarly journals Estimating population sizes of lions Panthera leo and spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta in Uganda's savannah parks, using lure count methods

Oryx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Okot Omoya ◽  
Tutilo Mudumba ◽  
Stephen T. Buckland ◽  
Paul Mulondo ◽  
Andrew J. Plumptre
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
National Park ◽  
Crocuta Crocuta ◽  
Panthera Leo ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Conservation Area ◽  
Population Sizes

AbstractDespite > 60 years of conservation in Uganda's national parks the populations of lions and spotted hyaenas in these areas have never been estimated using a census method. Estimates for some sites have been extrapolated to other protected areas and educated guesses have been made but there has been nothing more definitive. We used a lure count analysis method of call-up counts to estimate populations of the lion Panthera leo and spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta in the parks where reasonable numbers of these species exist: Queen Elizabeth Protected Area, Murchison Falls Conservation Area and Kidepo Valley National Park. We estimated a total of 408 lions and 324 hyaenas for these three conservation areas. It is unlikely that other conservation areas in Uganda host > 10 lions or > 40 hyaenas. The Queen Elizabeth Protected Area had the largest populations of lions and hyaenas: 140 and 211, respectively. It is estimated that lion numbers have declined by 30% in this protected area since the late 1990s and there are increasing concerns for the long-term viability of both species in Uganda.

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