ColLomic

High-quality genomes are an important foundation for biological and evolutionary research.
However, creating genome assemblies with high completeness and contiguity ideally requires fresh, frozen samples. The availability of such samples has become a major limitation for biodiversity genomics, especially for rare or endangered species or those living in remote regions.

On the other hand, museum collections house millions of samples in Germany and worldwide. While most of these samples do not preserve DNA well, kilobase-sized DNA could be extracted from samples preserved in ethanol, as has been shown by us and others. Here we will use museum samples in conjunction with the new PacBio HiFi sequencing technology, which generates precise reads of several kilobases in length, to assemble high-quality genomes.To unlock the treasures of museum collections for genome sequencing and analysis, this project establishes a new collaboration between four Leibniz and one Max Planck Institute, bringing together experts in DNA extraction, sequencing, genome assembly, analysis and phylogenomics.

Our aims are

(i) to systematically investigate the utility of museum specimens for the extraction of kilobase-sized DNA and to develop best practice protocols,

(ii) the creation of coherent assemblies of vertebrate species representing unsequenced clades, iconic or endangered species, or species with features of interest,

(iii) and, building on a repertoire of established genomic methods, annotate and analyse these newly sequenced genomes to gain insights into the genomic basis of phenotypic differences, phylogeny, biogeography and population history.