Periodic Reporting for period 3 - IndiGene (Genetics of Individuality)
Période du rapport: 2022-02-01 au 2023-07-31
This project makes use of the unique properties of medaka fish. Medaka can be fully inbred from the wild, are fertile and we have already sequenced a panel of 111 inbred medaka lines originating from a single natural population.
We will carry out in-depth profiling of these fish at multiple scales, ranging from molecular measurements to full organisms. We will analyse a number of traits in wild fish from the same source population, which will both increase our research potential and place our discoveries in the same context as human observational studies. A particular focus will be integrating this information across the cardiovascular systems, especially in comparison to human disease. We will host a “Research Hotel” that will provide and distribute the inbred medaka lines for other research projects that can be applied to this panel. This study will focus on the question of distinguishing between variation that occurs due to genetic, individual and environmental effects. This will lead to a more complete understanding of variation related to human disease and well-being.
Another manuscript describing the application of base editing to immediately target individual nucleotides in complex genomes is at a comparable state.
Due to the global pandemic we have had certain difficulties in generating further genetic sequencing data with our sequencing partners having capacity issues due to sequencing of SARS-CoV2 samples and simply a reduced capacity and social distancing requirements within the sequencing labs. However, we have now been able to get some further sequencing work fully planned and into the sequencing queues with the expectation of data generation later this year, for the large RNA sequencing experiment and further long read sequencing of the entire MIKK panel.
Further phenotyping of the MIKK panel and F2 cross designs have also been impacted by the global pandemic however full panel wide phenotypes, additional phenotypic measurement analysis and F2 cross generation has been completed for three specific traits, heart rate, vertebrae numbers and behavioural traits. F2 cross populations have been set up and are productive with planned large scale phenotyping and sequencing to happen during the next reporting period.