This is not a drill

Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) are primates from equatorial Africa. They are exceptionally colorful, perhaps more so than any other mammal. The bright blue colors on the male mandrill's face are produced from light refraction in collagen fibers, an example of structural coloration. Mandrills are also the largest of all monkeys! The mandrill is classified as vulnerable by IUCN.

This week, we revisited the draft genome assembly from (Yin, Yan et al., bioRxiv, 2018), from a team led by Karsten Kristiansen at the University of Copenhagen. We've now upgraded the genome to include chromosome-length scaffolds. We thank Houston Zoo for providing us with a sample used for Hi-C library preparation!

See below our usual analysis to compare how the 21 chromosomes in the new mandrill genome assembly relate to those of the mandrill’s close relative, the human.

Whole genome alignment between the current best human genome reference, GRCh38 (hg38), and GBI_mandrill_1.0_HiC, the upgraded mandrill genome assembly.

DNA Zoo Australia going LIVE!

We are happy to announce that this week, on the 4th of June, we have launched the Australian DNA Zoo initiative!

Thank you so much to the members of the research and conservation community who made it to the first roadmap event in Australia. Huge shout out to folks from University of Western Australia, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Western Australian Museum, Australian Museum, University of Melbourne, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Monash University, University of Sydney, Auckland University of Technology, University of Pretoria, Nelson Artificial Intelligence Institute, members of the zoo community, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre and industry partners from Illumina, Millennium Science and Microsoft who made it to the meeting! Thank you to the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies and the Forrest Research Foundation for hosting!

We hope that our effort, based in the University of Western Australia, Perth, will help build genomic resources for the unique Australian biota, with 87% of mammals endemic to the continent!

If you are interested to collaborate please don’t hesitate to reach out, through the DNA Zoo website or email me directly at parwinder.kaur@uwa.edu.au.

DNA Zoo Australia roadmap meeting, UWA, June 4th, 2019

SEAL Team

Harbor seals are one of the most common marine mammals. The global population of harbor seals is 350,000–500,000, but subspecies in certain habitats are threatened [1]. Once a common practice, sealing is now illegal in many nations within the animal's range, and in the US harbor seals, like all marine mammals, are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

To contribute to the work done on harbor seal conservation and management we share the chromosome-length assembly, here. This work is based on the draft genome assembly generated by the Canada's Genome Enterprise (CGEN). We thank SeaWorld for the sample used for Hi-C library preparation!

See below how the chromosomes of the new genome assembly compare to another pinniped recently assembled by the DNA Zoo, the Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris). The karyotypes appear to be practically identical up to a chromosome fusion event: chromosomes #9 and #2 in the Northern elephant seal = chromosome #2 in the harbor seal assembly.

Whole genome alignment plot between the genome assemblies of the harbor seal (GSC_HSeal_1.0_HiC) and the Northern elephant seal (Mirounga_angustirostris_HiC).