Genome Project Solutions

June 1, 2011:  All sequencing has been completed for the complete draft genome sequence of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. In hand is approximately 150X coverage in Illumina sequencing, a combination of unpaired reads, short insert paired-end reads, and long-insert paired-end reads, and approximately 23X coverage in Roche sequencing, a combination of unpaired reads and paired-end reads separated by 8 kb or 20 kb, plus substantial sequencing of cDNA and microRNAs.

The genome has been assembled, genes annotated, and all genes subjected to evolutionary analysis using our PHRINGE pipeline. Biological interpretations are underway and we expect to have a manuscript prepared within the next few months.

This work has been funded by a grant of $802,601 to Professor Steven Reppert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School by the National Institutes of Health as a supplement to his R01 award "Circadian Clock: Differential Cryptochrome Functions".

Genome Project Solutions has overseen the sequencing and lead the informatics effort through a subaward of $176,312 from these funds.

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