Reference Genome Project
A long standing objective for the ISGC is production of a draft reference genome sequence of the sheep. The consortium agreed to commence work on the reference genome project in January 2009, and a tremendous amount of progress has been made since. The data generation phase of the project commenced at two sequencing facilities in late 2009. Kunming Institute of Zoology and BGI Shenzhen commissioned whole-genome shotgun sequencing of a single Texel ewe using the Illumina Genome Analyzer. Simultaneously, the ARK-Genomics Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics at The Roslin Institute has produced sequence data from a single Texel ram which was used previously as the DNA source for CHORI-243 BAC library. A primary de novo assembly will be constructed during 2010 using sequence derived from the female Texel before reads from the Texel ram will be added to fill gaps, increase the number of SNP identified and facilitate analysis of the Y chromosome.To inform the genomics community about how the project is proceeding and who is involved, the consortium has published a "marker paper" which sets out the strategy for sequencing, assembly and pre-publication data access. The paper is accepted for publication in Animal Genetics and should appear during October 2010.