Moving beyond a single reference genome: GenoMagic, a novel solution to describe and manage genomic variation

Next Generation sequencing technologies have opened the door to multiple genome analyses and an increased understanding of the variations present in populations. To date, most of the germplasm analyses have relied on the comparison of sequence reads to one reference genome assembly, limiting our understanding of genomic variation. NRGene has developed novel analytics and approaches to efficiently denovo-assemble genomes and to describe the relevant variation across germplasm using a pan-genome approach. We are promoting a pangenome consortium, led by Dr. Tianzhen Zhang, that will enable full genome comparative analyses for tetraploid cotton germplasm. The longer-term goal is for the pan-genome to serve as a reference to fully catalog the diversity in Gossypium through sequence-based haplotypes. This talk will focus on the need and advantage of a pan-genome and sequence-based haplotypes for breeding and gene discovery applications.