Long Read Sequencing for Animal Population Health

Natural populations face many threats, including habitat loss and modification, direct mortality from exploitation, invasive species, emerging infectious diseases, pollution, and climate change. From basic research to applied wildlife conservation, genomic approaches play an important role. As a leading company with extensive experience in genomics research, CD Genomics provides customers worldwide with long read sequencing solutions for animal population health.

Introduction to the Need for Population Genomics in Wildlife

Climate change, pollution, and habitat loss affect most species and ecosystems on Earth. Wildlife is even at risk of extinction. Core issues in wildlife conservation include identifying populations and conservation units, assessing population size and connectivity, detecting hybridization, assessing the potential of populations to persist and adapt to environmental change, and understanding the factors that affect this potential. Genetic information can inform all of these issues and provide critical information for designing management strategies to address them. Genomic approaches are an essential component of a basic understanding of wildlife biology (e.g., disease or population dynamics) and inform direct conservation and management actions for wildlife populations and their habitats. Traditional conservation genetics in wildlife has relied on techniques such as alleles and microsatellite genotyping or mitochondrial DNA sequencing, and next-generation sequencing, to provide a wealth of knowledge about natural populations. However, these technologies provide data on a limited number of individual genetic markers. Long read sequencing technologies with substantially read lengths can improve the continuity, accuracy, and scope of variant calling/processing as well as de novo assembly .

Fig. 1. Population genomics of the critically endangered kākāpō. (Dussex et al., 2021)

Solutions Offering at CD Genomics

CD Genomics develops state-of-the-art PacBio SMRT sequencing and ONT Nanopore sequencing platforms that are capable of obtaining highly accurate and comprehensive genomic data from a variety of animal species, as well as assembling and phasing reference-quality genomes of terrestrial vertebrate species in an unprecedented manner. We aim to help you correctly identify at-risk populations and develop action plans to protect endangered species and habitats from increased genetic drift, inbreeding depression, and reduced gene flow.

We offer the following long read sequencing solutions to assess animal population health:

• Assessment of Genetic Diversity within Animal Populations

By obtaining comprehensive genomic data with high precision, we can help you identify rare alleles, genetic markers, and variants associated with important traits that contribute to population health and adaptation. This detailed information can help develop targeted conservation action plans to protect at-risk populations and mitigate the negative impacts of these genetic challenges.

• Analysis of Genetic Risks to Animal Populations

By analyzing genomic data obtained from long-read sequencing, we can accurately assess the impact of factors such as inbreeding depression, reduced gene flow, and genetic drift on the genetic health and viability of populations. This knowledge allows natural resource conservationists to develop strategies to minimize the effects of inbreeding decline and promote genetic diversity through translocation or gene rescue efforts.

Advantages of Our Long Read Sequencing Solutions for Animal Population Health

• The superior accuracy and read length of long read sequencing allow precise identification of genetic variation, enabling researchers to determine the true genetic diversity within animal populations.
• Provide precise estimates of essential wildlife population characteristics such as effective population size, inbreeding, demographic history, and population structure.
• Identify specific genetic loci and variants that lead to reduced inbreeding or adaptation to environmental change, thus enabling conservation efforts to estimate the ability of populations to evolve and adapt to environmental change and to manage adaptive variation.

Based on its long read sequencing platform, CD Genomics continues to advance genomic research and contribute to the conservation of animal populations and biodiversity. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you on projects of interest.

Related Services

PacBio SMRT Sequencing
Oxford Nanopore Sequencing
Population Evolution
Animal and Plant Genomics with Long-Read Sequencing
Animal/Plant Whole Genome De Novo Sequencing
Animal/Plant Whole Genome Sequencing