As a member of the recently created European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA), Frédéric participated to the second paper of the consortium published in Trends in Genetics (doi:10.1016/j.tig.2023.01.005). This review paper provides a survey of the main approaches and applications in biodiversity and conservation genomics which perform best in combination with reference genomes from the target species or closely related species. We review case studies to illustrate how reference genomes can facilitate biodiversity research and conservation across the tree of life. We conclude that the time is ripe to view reference genomes as fundamental resources and to integrate their use as a best practice in conservation genomics.
Citation:
Theissinger K.*, Fernandes C.*, Formenti G.*, Bista I., Berg P.R., Bleidorn C., Bombarely A., Crottini A., Gallo G.R, Godoy J.A., Jentoft S., Malukiewicz J., Mouton A., Oomen R.A., Paez S., Palsbøll P.J., Pampoulie C., Ruiz-Lopez M.J., Secomandi S., Svardal H., Theofanopoulou C., de Vries J., Waldvogel A.-M., Zhang G., Jarvis E.D., Bálint M., Ciofi C., Waterhouse R.M., Mazzoni C.J., Höglund J. & The European Reference Genome Atlas Consortium (including Delsuc F.) (2023). How genomics can help biodiversity conservation. Trends in Genetics 39:545-559. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2023.01.005