Back on Track
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As we mentioned in our last announcement, international regulations inhibited our ability to obtain tissue samples from Ntombi, a black rhino living in South Africa, for genome sequencing. This setback led researchers in Dr. Chuck Murry’s lab to search regionally for a suitable replacement sample. Luckily, the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History had a rhinoceros foot of unknown genus in its collection. Scientists in Dr. Murry’s lab isolated DNA to compare mitochondrial genomes across all rhinoceros species and confirmed the foot indeed came from a black rhino. Subsequently, the sample's genome was sequenced in Dr. Jay Shendure’s lab in Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. As we were in the process of sequencing, we learned of a larger black rhino sequencing project. The scope of this project is to use the genomes of many black rhinos (more than 20), from both live animals and museum artifacts, to not only publish a well-annotated genome sequence but to also study biological diversity and genetic drift within black rhino subspecies. We reached out to the lead scientists of this project to collaborate and have subsequently shared our unmapped sequences with them for processing. Interestingly, preliminary mapping and comparative genomics reveal that our foot sample was from a black rhino from East Africa (Kenya) that likely died in the 1960s. Suffice it to say we are excited that our black rhino genome sample will be used to support both a thorough genome assembly and efforts to understand species phylogenetics.
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