In Nature Genetics this week, a team from the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences reports the genome sequence of the common carp, Cyprinus carpio, which is the world's most farmed species of fish. The researchers sequenced the genomes of 33 fish from four wild populations and six domestic strains. When comparing two common varieties, they found 894 differentially expressed genes, many of which are involved in scale development and pigmentation. This work is expected to provide information of economically important traits and help breeders improve farmed carp. GenomeWeb Daily News has more on the carp genome here.
And in Nature Methods, a group from the French National Center for Scientific Research describe a new method for 3D genome reconstruction using chromosomal contacts. A key challenge in chromosome conformation capture experiments is the reconstruction of spatial distances and three-dimensional genome structures from observed contacts between genomic loci. To address this, the investigators developed a two-step algorithm that avoids convergence issues, deals with limited or noisy contact maps, and is faster than existing methods.