Advancing Genomics through the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA)

Abstract

The Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA), a collaborative network of diverse scientists, marked its second anniversary with a workshop in Munich, Germany, where international attendees focused on discussing current progress, milestones and bioinformatics resources. The community determined the recruitment and training talented researchers as one of the most pressing future needs and identified opportunities for network funding. GIGA also promotes future research efforts to prioritize taxonomic diversity and create new synergies. Here, we announce the generation of a central and simple data repository portal with a wide coverage of available sequence data, via the compagen platform, in parallel with more focused and specialized organism databases to globally advance invertebrate genomics. Therefore this article serves the objectives of GIGA by disseminating current progress and future prospects in the science of invertebrate genomics with the aim of promotion and facilitation of interdisciplinary and international research.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Metazoa; evolution; genetics.

Figure 1

Disconnect between primary (Sequence Read Archive, SRA) and assembled (Transcriptome Shotgun Assembly, TSA) high throughput sequence data available for invertebrates at NCBI. The plot shows a strong difference between the number of species for which primary transcriptomic sequence data are available (SRA) in comparison to the number of species for which assembled transcriptomes are available (TSA). One aim of GIGA is to fill this gap by providing a hub for assembled transcriptome and genome data currently not accessible from public databases.

Figure 2

Proposed GIGA deliverables and funding opportunities - Funding opportunities intersect with GIGA activities. Various activities have cumulative and synergistic effect. Specific areas for funding opportunities and requests are indicated by stars, with the number proportional to estimated relative costs (e.g., workshops and conferences cost less than current sample collection or bioinformatics training – see Stephens et al. 2015)). “At Large” genomics consortia can represent new and old groups with similar or complementary goals (Genome 10K 2009; Koepfli et al. 2015).