The DivSeek International Thematic Hub for Genebank Genomics aims to form a collaborative hub of national and international scientists to develop an end-to end strategy to efficiently explore, capture and catalogue the genetic diversity available in gene banks by deploying the correct technologies and analysis to the right accessions within a gene bank collection enabling a broad range of analysis from cost-effective population scale analysis of diversity panels, chromosome level reference genomes of single individual representatives and using Machine learning approaches to develop efficient exploration strategies and identify gaps in collections.
Co-leads: Anthony Hall, Earlham Institute
2021 update on Activities:
- Organised a workshop with the BBSRC, DFG, USDA and NSF on “Harnessing and maintaining biological diversity for plant and crop improvement.” Attended by over 40 academics from Germany, US, UK and CGIAR centres.
- The hub and Earlham are partners in both the Darwin tree of life (DTOL) and European reference genome atlas (ERGA), large-scale initiatives which aims to produce chromosome level genomes for all eukaryotic species in the UK and Europe.
- As part of our involvement we have ensured that crop wild relative and agricultural weeds have been included at the top of sequencing lists.