Genome Biol. 2009;10(4):R42. doi: 10.1186/gb-2009-10-4-r42. Epub 2009 Apr 24.

A whole-genome assembly of the domestic cow, Bos taurus.

Zimin AV, Delcher AL, Florea L, Kelley DR, Schatz MC, Puiu D, Hanrahan F, Pertea G, Van Tassell CP, Sonstegard TS, Marçais G, Roberts M, Subramanian P, Yorke JA, Salzberg SL.

Source

Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The genome of the domestic cow, Bos taurus, was sequenced using a mixture of hierarchical and whole-genome shotgun sequencing methods.

RESULTS:

We have assembled the 35 million sequence reads and applied a variety of assembly improvement techniques, creating an assembly of 2.86 billion base pairs that has multiple improvements over previous assemblies: it is more complete, covering more of the genome; thousands of gaps have been closed; many erroneous inversions, deletions, and translocations have been corrected; and thousands of single-nucleotide errors have been corrected. Our evaluation using independent metrics demonstrates that the resulting assembly is substantially more accurate and complete than alternative versions.

CONCLUSIONS:

By using independent mapping data and conserved synteny between the cow and human genomes, we were able to construct an assembly with excellent large-scale contiguity in which a large majority (approximately 91%) of the genome has been placed onto the 30 B. taurus chromosomes. We constructed a new cow-human synteny map that expands upon previous maps. We also identified for the first time a portion of the B. taurus Y chromosome.