An Israeli company specializing in big data genomic analysis has mapped the maize W22’s genome in just 34 hours. NRGene‘s speed and accuracy contributed to the entire mapping process being done exceptionally cost effectively.
“NRGene’s expertise in both plant genomics and IT allows us to create tools that deliver practical, useful results for scientists,” said Dr. Gil Ronen, CEO, NRGene. “With our unprecedented speeds and data accuracy, researchers and commercial seed and animal breeders can accelerate development of the most necessary key traits to achieve global food targets.”
NRGene’s DeNovoMAGICTM built the W22 genome by assembling 2 billion short DNA sequences into 367 very long and perfectly ordered sequences to create a maize reference genome in less than a day and a half.
The system used raw data from x180 short Illumina reads of the plant itself. It was assembled to an accuracy level of N50>8.2 million bp and N90>590 kbp, with unfilled gaps of less than 5 percent. 90 percent of the maize genome is presented by only 367 scaffolds. An N50 greater than 1 million translates into highly accurate, useable data.
The analysis was created in cooperation with an academic consortium including the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis; Cornell University; Iowa State University; University of Florida; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; and Boyce Thompson Institute.