A Steak in Genomics™

I know, this is a very strange title for a post.  More about that later... USDA Fellowship In this post I want to introduce you to part of my day-to-day research.  In August of this year, I was awarded a USDA NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship.  I was awarded this fellowship for two reasons: to prepare to become a leader in agricultural science and to complete a specific project.  My project is reassembly of the bovine reference genome sequence. Motivation: Why are we reassembling the bovine genome? The completion of the draft human genome sequence was announced to much fanfare in 2000.  But, the work of finishing the human genome still continues.  Two versions of the bovine reference sequence, by the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Maryland , were published in 2009.  At that time the bovine genomics community began discussing how to improve the draft assembly.  Key players suggested that more sequence data on  L1 Dominette 01449, the cow on whom the reference s

I received this reminder from the American Hereford Association this morning: Take Care When Collecting DNA GeneSeek Inc., Lincoln, Neb., is the new American Hereford Association (AHA) DNA lab ( learn more ). The switch has not been without its challenges and one of those is that the new technology, SNP based, requires a lot more DNA than the previous technology. In other words, we have had several requests that have not fully been reported because the lab will not have enough DNA for each of the tests. Assays are different for the abnormalities, parent verification, horned/polled and 50k GE-EPD. The bottom line is the lab needs a minimum of 80 hairs with the follicles and the best place to pull is right above the switch on the tail. This technology is also very sensitive to contamination due to pour-ons and other insecticides, so please keep that in mind. If you have any questions, contact  Jack Ward  at 816-842-3757. SNP assays require large amounts of high quality DNA. From