BBR GenomeHubs - agile genome databasing for neglected organisms of agricultural, development and biodiversity importance

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Building the first draft of the human genome cost around £2.5 billion. New sequencing technologies mean the cost of resequencing a human has reduced over a million-fold. This reduction in cost also transforms genomics approaches to many other biological questions. Genomics is now commonly applied to diverse goals from crop and livestock improvement, through pathogen and parasite surveillance, to biodiversity assessment. Many research communities are now able to generate reference genomes for their target species, compare genomes across suites of related species and sequence many individuals of the same species to investigate how variation between genome sequences affects biology.With these benefits come the challenges of managing a deluge of data, of analysing the data to answer questions, and of making the data and results available to others. For raw sequence data deposition in "databases of record" (internationally-supported systems that collect, collate and store for posterity) is standard. However, many discoveries are based on intensively analysed data - raw sequence is "assembled" to predict the whole genome sequence, genes are predicted in this genome sequence, and their functions are inferred by a range of annotation tools. Capturing these analyses in databases of record is strongly encouraged, but is technically difficult. For a few species, researchers have developed dedicated genome exploration databases that collect and collate not only sequence but also annotation and functional data, and present it in a way that facilitates integration. These databases require considerable expertise and effort to set up, maintain and keep current with the latest scientific developments. Thus, for the majority of species, and especially species of interest to the developing world, dedicated databases do not exist and communities lack the resources to plug this gap.During a previous BBR project, we developed an approach to genome databasing, named GenomeHubs, that removes the barriers to creating and maintaining a dedicated genomics resource for any species group. We do this by greatly simplifying the process of importing data into, and hosting an instance of, the most comprehensive genome database platform, Ensembl. Using the carefully-engineered Ensembl system, we have developed tools that standardise data from diverse sources, run automated analyses, import analysis results back into the database and visualise the genome and annotations through a web interface. In this proposal we will develop GenomeHubs further to make it straightforward for researchers to run all the steps to assemble, annotate and run standard analyses on any genome or set of genomes and share these results with the wider community. We will add new analyses and visualisations and we will help users through collaboration and training in the setup and use of GenomeHubs.This application is being made in tandem with one to the BBSRC BBR Global Challenges Research Funding call, which will work with Lower and Middle Income Country (LMIC) scientists to develop and exploit GenomeHubs for their needs. Genomics is being increasingly applied to problems of the developing world, in particular improvement of crop plants and local farm animals, understanding and combating infectious disease, and biodiversity conservation. This project will work very closely with the GCRF GenomeHubs outreach project, bringing the technology to LMIC researchers and supporting their use of GenomeHubs. We will link research communities, promote data sharing and enhance the pooling of resources and understanding to solve shared problems. We will develop collaborations with key scientists in LMICs who will act as Ambassadors for GenomeHubs, and collaborate closely with LMIC researchers to develop new code, new visualisations and new analytic tools for GenomeHubs to meet their requirements.