Tag Archives: genome

Today, GigaScience published a report on the genome of a truly unique species: the giant squid Architeuthis dux. The elusive animal is the main character in ancient stories about sea monsters and it is known as “the kraken” in many legends. For a long time its mere existence was questionable, until, in 1857, the Danish naturalist Japetus […]

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Three jellyfish genomes are better than one A new article in GigaScience  might make you squirm if you plan to hit the beach this summer. The published work presents the draft genomes of three different jellyfish species. The international group of researchers, lead by Joseph Ryan (University of Florida), chose to examine jellyfish that present a […]

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While they say one swallow doesn’t make a spring, one swallow genome makes a welcome contribution to the avian genome club. Taking advantage of the latest genomic and optical mapping technologies, a team of Scientists from the University of Milan, California State Polytechnic University and the University of Pavia, have carried out the high quality […]

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Today in GigaScience  we present the genome of the tegu lizard. It is the most complete assembly of any reptile genome so far and will also aid scientists to study other lizards and snakes.  The tegu has mastered a trick that is highly unusual in the reptile world: it can turn on its own heating […]

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In GigaScience, Benjamin Makepiece and his co-authors from Liverpool present genome assemblies of two trombidid mite species, the itch-inducing chigger mite and its more benign cousin, the velvet mite.  The bite of the chigger mite can transmit a life-threatening bacterial disease, scrub typhus.  When the authors explored the gene content of the mites’ genomes, searching clues for […]

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The cane toad Rhinella marina is native to Central and South America. But thanks to humans and the sugar cane trade, the species now thrives also in Australia and other places where it doesn’t belong. The invasive species comes with an unpleasant surprise for native Australian predators, such as snakes or freshwater crocodiles: R. marina kills them with its […]

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Monkey Microbiome Business Research just out in GigaScience introduces the macaque monkey to the microbial gene catalogue club, joining other important model organisms including the (also recently published in GigaScience) Rat, Mouse, Pig and Cow. To explain more, in this posting we give some insight into what this data shows, and how this growing library […]

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A genome scale model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa published recently in GigaScience will help scientists to fight multi-drug-resistant superbugs. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, causing life-threatening infections. It is increasingly resistant to all antibiotics. The antibiotic polymyxin is a weapon of last resort against the superbug, but P. aeruginosa is increasingly gaining […]

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Researchers have sequenced the venomous Solenodon, the last survivor of a branch of mammals that appeared at the time of the dinosaurs. Here we give some behind the scenes insight with some of the authors of this prize winning project, and include a Q&A with lead author Taras Oleksyk. Our latest paper presents a draft […]

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A high coverage, high quality genome sequence of the butterfly Bicyclus anynana is published today in GigaScience. B. anynana, the squinting bush brown, is a fascinating model species that can modify its morphology in response to environmental clues. The 475 Mb genome assembly, achieved by combining traditional Illumina and long read PacBio data, encodes 22,642 […]

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