Generating gapless, telomere-to-telomere plant genome assemblies

Event overview

Reconstructing plant genomes is a difficult task due to their unusual ploidy, the large number of repetitive elements present and their often large size. Sequencing technologies that are capable of producing long reads show promise for obtaining more complete and accurate genome assemblies. The first critical step here is the extraction of high-molecular weight DNA using the appropriate protocol. In the case of homozygous genomes, this technology can generate contigs that represent complete chromosomes and reveal the architecture of complex regions, like centromeres, rDNA clusters, or clusters of paralogous genes.

In this presentation, bioinformatician Caroline Belser focused on the sequencing of a banana genome, and the reconstruction of complete chromosomes from telomere to telomere using nanopore sequencing technology.

Watch this webinar to learn more about:

• Generating gapless, telomere-to-telomere plant genome assemblies with nanopore technology
• Using long and ultra-long nanopore reads to resolve highly repetitive sequences

Meet the speaker

Caroline Belser works at Genoscope, CEA, in a bioinformatics laboratory where she is involved in several genome projects which aim to produce high-quality genome assemblies using long-read technologies. She is also part of international consortia working on marine biodiversity. We spoke to Caroline about her work using nanopore sequencing to reconstruct large genomes, and the benefit it brings to the study of biodiversity.