Phase Genomics is dedicating the rest of this month (January, 2019) to the beginning of “The Era of Platinum Genomes” to celebrate recent advancements in genome assembly; researchers now have the ability to generate chromosome-scale, fully-phased diploid genome assemblies for any species by combining two technologies: long-read sequencing data from PacBio and Phase Genomics’ Hi-C.
At the end of this month, we will be giving away a “Platinum Genome Project” which includes a full Hi-C service or kit project to an attendee at the International Plant and Animal Genome Conference 2019 (PAGXXVII). This project includes using Proximo Genome Scaffolding to generate chromosome-scale scaffolds and FALCON-Phase to phase haplotypes across the entire genome. Attendees can enter the raffle by stopping by our booth (#208) throughout the conference, or enter using the form at the bottom of this page. Stay tuned for the winner announcement on January 31st, 2019 by following our twitter account @PhaseGenomics. Offer subject to sweepstakes terms. No purchase necessary.
WHAT ARE PLATINUM GENOMES?
Much like the music industry ranks albums as gold or platinum, genomes can also be classified using the same terminology based on the completeness of the assembly and quality of phasing (i.e. haplotype resolution). High-quality genomes have complete chromosomes and haplotype resolution in critical sections of the genome qualify as a “gold genome,” whereas “platinum genomes” are assemblies with full chromosome scaffold and haplotypes resolved across the entire genome.
Since publishing the first human genome assembly, research from the 1000 genomes project and other groups have created several platinum human genomes to represent different human populations. In fact, one of our latest projects in collaboration with PacBio, generated the most contiguous, haplotype resolved, human genome to-date. However, there are only a few platinum genomes for non-human organisms, as scaffolding and haplotyping entire genomes is very labor-intensive using standard tools. We are excited to offer tools such as Proximo and FALCON-Phase to help usher in the era of straightforward platinum genome assemblies to researchers studying plants and animals.
RESOURCES
Phase Genomics Workshop at PAGXXVII: Add it to your schedule.
Phase Genomics Platinum Genome Sweepstakes guidelines