One individual glow worm would be all that’s needed. By taking a female at the end of the season, when she has virtually no hope of attracting a mate with her glow, we would not be affecting the local population.
For getting what we call the reference genome, we would only need a DNA sample from one single otter. This is what this project is about – sequencing one individual to sequence and put together its entire genome. This is already giving us LOTS of information.
You’re right, however, that we would then of course add data from additional individuals to the data set. But that is cheaper than when you sequence the genome for the first time, and we have some funding already to do this.
This competition is for a single, high quality, sample of DNA to be sequenced at sufficient depth to assemble the complete genome of one individual of the species ‘de-novo’, which means without using a reference genome. Many genomes are very similar, but contain SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) and ‘indels’ (insertions and deletions) from each other. When a reference genome for a species is not available, a closely related species can be used to align DNA sequences and compare genomes. However, some of these SNPs and indels may explain the differences between species but it is impossible to know without the full genome sequence of the species of interest.
A few leaves should be enough to sequence one individual to construct the first ever genome of strapwort. After that, I am hoping we can sample as many individuals as possible to learn more about the genetic diversity of my population in the UK.
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