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The Bovine Pangenome Consortium (BPC) is an international collaboration dedicated to the assembly of cattle genomes to develop a more complete representation of cattle genomic diversity. The goal of the BPC is to provide genome assemblies and a community-agreed pangenome representation to replace breed-specific reference assemblies for cattle genomics. The BPC invites partners sharing our vision to participate in the production of these assemblies and the development of a common, community-approved, pangenome reference as a public resource for the research community ( https://bovinepangenome.github.io/ ). This community-driven resource will provide the context for comparison between studies and the future foundation for cattle genomic selection.

The Bovine Pangenome Consortium (BPC) is an international collaboration dedicated to the assembly of cattle genomes to develop a more complete representation of cattle genomic diversity. The goal of the BPC is to provide genome assemblies and a community-agreed pangenome representation to replace breed-specific reference assemblies for cattle genomics. The BPC invites partners sharing our vision to participate in the production of these assemblies and the development of a common, community-approved, pangenome reference as a public resource for the research community (https://bovinepangenome.github.io/). This community-driven resource will provide the context for comparison between studies and the future foundation for cattle genomic selection., Genome Biology, 24 (1), ISSN:1474-760X

Background The gaur (Bos gaurus) is the largest extant wild bovine species, native to South and Southeast Asia, with unique traits, and is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Results We report the first gaur reference genome and identify three biological pathways including lysozyme activity, proton transmembrane transporter activity, and oxygen transport with significant changes in gene copy number in gaur compared to other mammals. These may reflect adaptation to challenges related to climate and nutrition. Comparative analyses with domesticated indicine (Bos indicus) and taurine (Bos taurus) cattle revealed genomic signatures of artificial selection, including the expansion of sperm odorant receptor genes in domesticated cattle, which may have important implications for understanding selection for male fertility. Conclusions Apart from aiding dissection of economically important traits, the gaur genome will also provide the foundation to conserve the species.

Additional file 1. This contains Supplementary Figures. S1–S5.

Additional file 2. This contains Supplementary Tables S1–S14.

Bison are an icon of the American West and an ecologically, commercially, and culturally important species. Despite numbering in the hundreds of thousands today, conservation concerns remain for the species, including the impact on genetic diversity of a severe bottleneck around the turn of the 20th century and genetic introgression from domestic cattle. Genetic diversity and admixture are best evaluated at genome-wide scale, for which a high-quality reference is necessary. Here, we use trio binning of long reads from a bison-Simmental cattle (Bos taurus taurus) male F1 hybrid to sequence and assemble the genome of the American plains bison (Bison bison bison). The male haplotype genome is chromosome-scale, with a total length of 2.65 Gb across 775 scaffolds (839 contigs) and a scaffold N50 of 87.8 Mb. Our bison genome is ~13× more contiguous overall and ~3400× more contiguous at the contig level than the current bison reference genome. The bison genome sequence presented here (ARS-UCSC_bison1.0) will enable new research into the evolutionary history of this iconic megafauna species and provide a new tool for the management of bison populations in federal and commercial herds.

Additional file of Genomic characteristics of cattle copy number variations

Authors’ original file for figure 3

Additional file 1:Supplemental Material file. Table S1. Numbers of species, breeds, animals and trios used to call CNVs genotyped by BovineSNP50 assay. Table S2. Btau_4.0 cattle CNV regions and their frequencies. Table S3. Comparison of CNV regions identified on two cattle genome assemblies. Table S4. UMD3 cattle CNV regions and their frequencies. Table S5. The comparison of CNVs from 39 trios using three CNV calling algorithms: individual-calling, posterior-calling and joint-calling. Table S7. Outgroup CNV regions and their frequencies. Table S8. The effects of CNV length and frequency on calling consistances between CNV callings based on SNP array and aCGH. Table S9. qPCR Summary. Table S10. Over/Underrepresentation of PANTHER molecular function, biological process and pathway terms. Table S12. CNVR frequency differences among breeds. Figure S1. Illustration of a typical CNV call with qPCR validation. (DOC 3 MB)

Authors’ original file for figure 2

Authors’ original file for figure 1

Filamentous actinobacteria from the genus Frankia and diverse woody trees and shrubs together form N2-fixing actinorhizal root nodule symbioses that are a major source of new soil nitrogen in widely diverse biomes 1. Three major clades of Frankia sp. strains are defined; each clade is associated with a defined subset of plants from among the eight actinorhizal plant families 2,3. The evolution arytrajectories followed by the ancestors of both symbionts leading to current patterns of symbiont compatibility are unknown. Here we show that the competing processes of genome expansion and contraction have operated in different groups of Frankia strains in a manner that can be related to the speciation of the plant hosts and their geographic distribution. We sequenced and compared the genomes from three Frankia sp. strains having different host plant specificities. The sizes of their genomes varied from 5.38 Mbp for a narrow host range strain (HFPCcI3) to 7.50Mbp for a medium host range strain (ACN14a) to 9.08 Mbp for a broad host range strain (EAN1pec.) This size divergence is the largest yet reported for such closely related bacteria. Since the order of divergence of the strains is known, the extent of gene deletion, duplication and acquisition could be estimated and was found to be inconcert with the biogeographic history of the symbioses. Host plant isolation favored genome contraction, whereas host plant diversification favored genome expansion. The results support the idea that major genome reductions as well as expansions can occur in facultatively symbiotic soil bacteria as they respond to new environments in the context of their symbioses.

BACKGROUND: The domestic pig (Sus scrofa) is important both as a food source and as a biomedical model given its similarity in size, anatomy, physiology, metabolism, pathology, and pharmacology to humans. The draft reference genome (Sscrofa10.2) of a purebred Duroc female pig established using older clone-based sequencing methods was incomplete, and unresolved redundancies, short-range order and orientation errors, and associated misassembled genes limited its utility. RESULTS: We present 2 annotated highly contiguous chromosome-level genome assemblies created with more recent long-read technologies and a whole-genome shotgun strategy, 1 for the same Duroc female (Sscrofa11.1) and 1 for an outbred, composite-breed male (USMARCv1.0). Both assemblies are of substantially higher (>90-fold) continuity and accuracy than Sscrofa10.2. CONCLUSIONS: These highly contiguous assemblies plus annotation of a further 11 short-read assemblies provide an unprecedented view of the genetic make-up of this important agricultural and biomedical model species. We propose that the improved Duroc assembly (Sscrofa11.1) become the reference genome for genomic research in pigs.