959_Nematode_Genomes

A major focus of the Blaxter Faculty is to provide high quality reference genome sequences and formal species descriptions of >260 species of Nematode from 53 genera. Nematodes will be cultured in-house using in-vitro techniques to provide abundant, axenic yields of genetically identical progeny for extraction of high molecular weight DNA. With exception to model species, Caenorhabditis elegans, assemblies presented hitherto have not been chromosomal; primarily due to the pitfalls of short-read sequencing technologies to bridge and resolve long regions of the genome containing non-coding repeats. The quality scores of the 134 published Nematode genomes generated with short-read methods to date, vary greatly in completeness. Using modern long-read sequencing technologies, it is possible to generate highly accurate consensus chromosomal assemblies of all 260 nematode genomes.