NHGRI Selects 13 Additional Species for Sequencing; Lucky Day for Bushbaby and Megabat

NEW YORK, June 8 (GenomeWeb News) - The NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute today announced 13 additional animal species whose genomes its Large-Scale Sequencing Research Network intends to sequence.

The thirteen animals are:

n      the 13-lined ground squirrel, Spermophilis tridecemlineatus

n      the megabat, Cynopterus species

n      the microbat, Microchiroptera species

n      the tree shrew, Tupaia belangeri

n      the bushbaby, Otolemur garnetti

n      the hyrax, Procavia capensis

n      the pangolin, Manis species

n      the sloth, Bradypus or Choleopus species

n      the Northern white-cheeked gibbon, Nomascus leucogenys

n      M and S strains of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae

n      a roundworm, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora

n      the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

Some of the species will be sequenced at low-density coverage, and only small portions of the gibbon genome will be covered to determine chromosomal rearrangements. For the zebra finch, researchers intend to construct a physical map and sequence selected genome regions later on.

The five members of the research network -- Agencourt Bioscience, BaylorCollegeof Medicine, the Broad Instituteof MITand Harvard, the J. Craig Venter Science Institute, and Washington University School of Medicine -- will carry out the sequencing.

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