Over the past ten years dozens of animals have seen their genomes sequenced. With the completion of each project, researchers have been eager to hear what new insights the genome of that animal has given us. The latest animal to reach the ranks of database legacy is the panda (or more specifically Jing Jing of Beijing Olympics fame), and the results are quite surprising.
The first important take home message is the technique. Sequencing was done using next gen sequencing technology (see massively parallel sequencing) developed by Illumina (one of the three major stakeholders in next gen technologies). Normally, the “reads”, or how long a stretch of DNA you can sequence, is very short. Next gen technology makes up for that by sequencing so much so fast that you can the place all those little reads onto a framework (i.e. an already sequenced genome) for assembly. None of that is easy stuff, even for experiences bioinformatic programmers.
The problem is that you need to have that framework to help make sense of all those short reads. But here, an algorithm specifically designed to assemble short reads without a framework was used with a super computer (32 cores and 512Gb RAM!). This could really open the stage for future studies in sequencing whole genomes, but the technology involved still seems prohibitive. That highlights an oft false perceived view, much in genome sequencing is not about the technique, but rather about the algorithm.
An exciting discovery regards the panda’s diet. Pandas are notorious for subsisting on a primarily bamboo diet, but genes encoding the enzyme cellulase, which breaks down cellulose in plants, was not found in it’s own genome. This suggests that pandas rely on its gut microbiome to a very large extent to help digest it’s food.
I wonder what the benefits are of having your gut mircobiome do all the work for you? The study leaves some interesting questions open for future research.
And if my instincts are correct, we may be on the verge of a new trend: Will Canada finally provide some sasquatch samples for sequencing?
