EADGENE ATO and WP5.1 Structural Genomics Workshop
Satellite to Animal Disease Genomics: Opportunities and Applications
12th June 2008, David Hume Tower, University of Edinburgh, UK
To download a PDF of the programme please click here.
EADGENE Animal Trait Ontology Initiative Workshop
Ontology is a classification methodology that defines a common vocabulary in a structured way for useful information sharing. An ATO will help facilitate the transfer of trait and genomics information across agricultural species and the links with information from human and model species such as mouse and rat. Our target is to make (as much as possible) good use of all activities worldwide that are related to the development of an ATO, avoiding ‘competition’, overlap and wasting of resources.
In reality, that is not as easy as it sounds. Different groups working on different aspects of an ATO very quickly develop their own interpretation of what an ATO is all about. What is a logical approach for one species might not work out that well for another species. Also, getting input from the stakeholders is always a challenge.
The workshop focussed on the collection of trait information in general and on a specific project around Salmonella in pigs. The trait information involves traits used by the animal breeding and production industry. The ‘Salmonella in pigs’ project is a pilot that in the future will be extended to other diseases and species.
The objectives of the workshop were 1) to illustrate what the main activities around the development of the ATO are, 2) to give feedback to those involved in the process, 3) to discuss how to improve the process and the value of the resulting product and 4) to illustrate how an ATO can be used and create value for the industry and research community.
Workshop organisers: Martien Groenen (Wageningen UR) and Hein van der Steen (StoneBridge Breeding Ltd.)
Enquiries to: Hein.vandersteen@stonebridgeg.com
For further information on the EADGENE Animal Trait Ontology Initiative please click here.
EADGENE WP5.1 Structural Genomics Meeting (Continuation of the ATO workshop)
Workshop organiser: Martien Groenen (Wageningen UR), enquires to: Martien.Groenen@wur.nl
For further information on EADGENE WP5.1 Structural Genomics please click here.
Work package 5.1 is concerned with the improvement and development of genomics resources in farm animals, with particular attention focussed on the genetic variation in these species and on the improvement of the genome assemblies and annotation. Genome annotation focuses on genes as well as on the identification of regulatory elements (e.g. transcription factor binding sites, miRNAs and miRNA targets). Genetic variation is addressed by the large scale identification and use of SNPs and the analysis of copy number variation (CNV) in farm animals. The objective of the workshop was to provide an overview of the recently developed resources and to stimulate collaborative use of these resources in the ongoing research projects within the laboratories of the partners involved in EADGENE.