Scientists fr om the UK, China, Denmark, USA, South Korea, and Russia re-sequenced and completely ordered fragments of the Masai giraffe genome. This representative of the African fauna, the tallest animal in the world, is classified as endangered. Using the latest sequencing and assembly methods, Novosibirsk scientists from NSU and the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of the SB RAS were involved in genome optimization by stacking read fragments sequentially on chromosomes. The data obtained was published in “GigaScience” included data sets and research results in the field of biological sciences.
The Masai giraffe, due to its size and growth, has unique anatomical and physiological features. They have long been of interest to scientists in various research fields. The study of the Masai or Kilimanjaro giraffe genome is important because it not only allows us to understand the molecular basis for the giraffe’s unique adaptive features, but also facilitates the evolutionary analysis of other ruminants.
Alexander Grafodatsky, Scientific Head of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Engineer at the NSU Natural Sciences Department Laboratory of Structural, Functional, and Comparative Genomics Laboratory, and Doctor of Biological Sciences, provided more details,
The assembly of the Masai giraffe genome started with what we could call a “bunch of torn text” without a beginning or end. This is typical with the genomes of other species. After four years of work, we were able to assemble a “book about a giraffe” wh ere sequences for 20 thousand genes are defined. In the future, we will try to understand how these genes work. For example, what changes in the heart are necessary for blood to be able to flow to such a height without a heart attack? In addition, giraffes are a completely separate group of artiodactyls and we discovered in detail how their genome differs from the genomes of cows, deer, and other species.
According to Grafodatsky, “there are several projects in the world for new sequencing of vertebrate genomes. In Russia, ours is the only team doing this. Naturally, for the first stage we wanted to choose an animal that resonates with the public and this giraffe is one of them”.
