Researchers at Kent and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) have developed a new cost effective approach to mapping and assembling genomes.
The approach uses a novel method that is particularly effective for bird species.
Developed with funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), this new method enables geneticists to assemble complete (chromosome-level) genome assemblies.
The new method developed by Kent’s Comparative Genomics teams, led by Professor Darren Griffin in the School of Biosciences and Dr Denis Larkin’s team at the RVC, and released in a new paper entitled ‘Upgrading short read animal genome assemblies to chromosome level using comparative genomics and a universal probe set’, allows geneticists to reach chromosome level genome assembly both cost-effectively and fast. The team’s specific breakthrough is to use universal probes to anchor scaffolds to chromosomes physically.
Professor Darren Griffin