We Have Genome!

We received the full genome of the Humpback whale. While our plan had to change, we adapted and were successful with our purpose: obtaining the first full haplotype genome of a Humpback whale. We are in possession of a FASTA file, an agp file, and we are awaiting the final annotation.

Cantata Bio (formerly Dovetail) handled the sequencing. We received 1 gram of male Humpback whale kidney from NIST, for which we are tremendously grateful.

We are in talks with NOAA to get the genome published online for public use.

Attached is the methodology and the stats on the actual genome. We are working on sequencing additional genomes, at lower coverage, to compare them against the genome and explore the 2014 finding by Jackson et al. regarding possible subspeciation. We also hope to create more clarity around the phylogenetic relationships among the various clades and presumptive subspecies.

I am so grateful to all of you. On we go!