|
Long term goals The long term goals of this project are to develop underpinning resources for the sheep genomics consortia in a timely and cost effective manner. Initially this is focused around creating a virtual sheep genome which coupled with a 3x WGS coverage of the genome using a Roche 454 FLX approach and Illumina Solexa for reduced representational sequencing. This strategy will enable the creation of a 60k ovine SNP chip. The SNP chip will then be used to create a low resolution haplotype map using breed samples, a physical map using the 2 radiation hybrid panels and a higher density linkage map. The 60k SNP chip will be available to be used by research groups to identify markers associated with traits of interest, such as disease resistance, and improved and healthier meat products. The second phase is to progress towards a de novo assembly of the ovine genome and identify many more SNPs. These will provide the ability to make higher density SNP chips and whole genome coverage expression arrays. In the long term as sequencing costs continue to decline a near complete ovine genome sequence is expected, and initially work will concentrate on paired end reads of various insert sizes to aid such assemblies. However, other than limited exploratory pilot studies using next generation sequencing technologies this is currently outside the planning timeframe of the consortium. |