Genome Diversity: Insights from long-read sequencing

Building on Bioplatforms Australia initiatives (e.g. OMG, AusARG, TSI, NCIG) and parallel research, the Centre for Biodiversity Analysis and the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics will host a symposium on Genome Diversity: Insights from long read-sequencing. This will take place at ANU's Research School of Biology just ahead of the International Congress on Genetics and Genomics in Melbourne. We have taken advantage of several international visitors attending the Congress who are joining us in Canberra first. Together with leading local researchers, this symposium will be an exciting opportunity to hear from and network with others working in the field.

The meeting plans to showcase new advances in 3rd-generation genomics (PacBio and Nanopore) in genome assembly, haplotypes, pan-genomes, and structural variation. We will cover biological and technological insights and diversity among non-model populations of plants, animals, and humans. Multiple sessions will span topics across organisms and tools including genome repeats, methylation and other modifications that sit on top of the genome diversity. The program will link new insights from long read assemblies with biological function, phenotypic and adaptive diversity and highlight signatures of natural selection.

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Registration and presentations

Thanks to the generous support provided by the CBA, NCIG, PacBio and Oxford Nanopore Technologies, we are pleased to offer free attendance to the symposium and social mixer. However, we ask you to please register for catering purposes, and let us know as soon as possible if you are unable to attend.

In the program we have time for a small number of 10-min speed talks and space for poster presentations during the breaks and social mixer. We would particularly like to encourage students and ECRs to consider presenting as this is an excellent opportunity to share your ideas with leading international and local scientists.

On the registration form you can indicate if you would like to present a speed talk and/or poster, with space to include your title and a short abstract.

Registrations and abstract submissions close 30 June 2023.

 

Program

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Talks will be interspersed with plenty of time for discussion at tea breaks, lunch, a walk through the nearby Australian National Botanic Gardens, technological discussion panel, and evening social mixer.

 

Thursday 13 July

 
9:00 Craig Moritz Welcome
9:15 Talk: Justin Borevitz Landscape (pan) genomics for climate adaptation in Eucalyptus
9:45 Talk: Sophie MacRae Orzechowski Neo-sex chromosomes in Australian honeyeaters: a tale of gains and losses
10:15 Talk: Andy Bachler Moth Pangenomes! And 3 long-read short-stories
10:45 Morning tea Catcheside Court
11:15 Talk: Ann McCartney The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralized approach towards making biodiversity genomics equitable and inclusive
11:45 Talk: Scott Ferguson Plant genome evolution in the genus Eucalyptus driven by structural rearrangements that promote sequence divergence
12:15 Speed talk: James Ferguson Slow5: A fast and reliable format for nanopore sequencing
12:25 Speed talk: Floriaan Devloo Delva High Throughput mitogenome sequencing to determine paternity of half sib pairs in a Close Kin Mark Recapture study
12:35 Speed talk: Benjamin Schwessinger The short and the long. Nanopore sequencing beyond the genome.
12:45 Lunch Catcheside Court
1:15 Break Botanic Gardens walk
2:45 Talk: Karen Miga Expanding studies of global genomic diversity with complete, telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assemblies
3:15 Talk: Qi Zhou Evolution of chromosomes and their nuclear architectures of amniotes since their common ancestor
3:45 Talk: Rose Andrew Disentangling the web of introgression in eucalypts
4:15 Break 10-15 min
4:30 Technical panel discussion: David Hawkes, Tim Amos, James Ferguson, Ash Jones, Carolina Correa Ospina Long-read sequencing platforms. Facilitated by Niccy Aitken.
5:30 Social mixer drinks & canapés Catcheside Court
6:30 End of Day 1  
 

Friday 14 July

 
9:00 Talk: Scott Edwards Pangenomes of North American Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma) reveal abundant structural variation and rapid shifts in genome size
9:30 Talk: Jason Bragg Genomics for plant conservation
10:00 Talk: Arthur Georges Long-read sequencing technologies and sex determination -- on the cusp of a wave of new discovery?
10:30 Speed talk: Zixiong Zhuang Eucalyptus viminalis structural variants
10:40 Speed talk: Agin Ravindran Dissecting the impacts of gene fusion-mediated translational dysregulation in B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia to highlight novel therapeutic targets
10:50 Speed talk: Stephanie Chen Conserving myrtle rust impacted species in the genomic era
11:00 Morning tea Catcheside Court
11:30 Talk: Zander Myburg Long-read sequencing of eucalypt hybrids: first insights into genome structural variation
12:00 Talk: Kate Farquharson What can we achieve with a single long-read genome? Insights from two Extinct-in-the-Wild reptiles.
12:30 Talk: Hardip Patel National Centre for Indigenous Genomics enabling the inclusion of First Nations peoples in genomics
1:00 Lunch Catcheside Court
2:00 Symposium end