Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jul 17;6(3):lqae075.
doi: 10.1093/nargab/lqae075. eCollection 2024 Sep.

The Catalan initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project: contributing local data to global biodiversity genomics

Montserrat Corominas  1   2   3 , Tomàs Marquès-Bonet  4   5   6   7 , Miquel A Arnedo  8   9 , Mònica Bayés  6   10 , Jordina Belmonte  11   12 , Hector Escrivà  13 , Rosa Fernández  4 , Toni Gabaldón  5   14   15   16 , Teresa Garnatje  17   18 , Josep Germain  19 , Manel Niell  20 , Ferran Palero  21 , Joan Pons  22 , Pere Puigdomènech  3   23 , The Catalan Initiative For The Earth BioGenome Project; Catalan initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project; Vanesa Arroyo  20 , Cristian Cuevas-Caballé  1   9 , Joan Ferrer Obiol  24 , Ivo Gut  6   10 , Marta Gut  6   10 , Oriane Hidalgo  16   25 , Guillem Izquierdo-Arànega  1   9 , Laia Pérez-Sorribes  17   26 , Emilio Righi  27 , Marta Riutort  1   9 , Joan Vallès  3   9   28 , Julio Rozas  1   9 , Tyler Alioto  6   10 , Roderic Guigó  3   27   29
Collaborators, Affiliations

The Catalan initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project: contributing local data to global biodiversity genomics

Montserrat Corominas et al. NAR Genom Bioinform. .

Abstract

The Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project (CBP) is an EBP-affiliated project network aimed at sequencing the genome of the >40 000 eukaryotic species estimated to live in the Catalan-speaking territories (Catalan Linguistic Area, CLA). These territories represent a biodiversity hotspot. While covering less than 1% of Europe, they are home to about one fourth of all known European eukaryotic species. These include a high proportion of endemisms, many of which are threatened. This trend is likely to get worse as the effects of global change are expected to be particularly severe across the Mediterranean Basin, particularly in freshwater ecosystems and mountain areas. Following the EBP model, the CBP is a networked organization that has been able to engage many scientific and non-scientific partners. In the pilot phase, the genomes of 52 species are being sequenced. As a case study in biodiversity conservation, we highlight the genome of the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, sequenced under the CBP umbrella.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Data and genome assemblies submitted to the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) are grouped in umbrella projects at the species level, which in turn can be linked to one or more EBP-affiliated projects. Regional projects such as CBP and Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) (3) may themselves be grouped under larger regional initiatives, such as the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Catalonia's biodiversity catalog. Number of initially estimated (gray) and currently cataloged taxa from different taxonomic groups. The numbers refer exclusively to Catalonia, and do not include the rest of Catalan-speaking territories.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The CBP workflow (see main text for explanation).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Genome projects under the umbrella of the Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project (CBP) by June 2023. The figure captures the phylogenetic position of the species, the genome size when known, the technologies employed for sequencing, and rationale behind the species selection. Top left is the CBP logo.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
(A) Distribution map of the main colonies of Puffinus mauretanicus and P. yelkouan across the Western Mediterranean. (B) Principal component analysis (PCA) summarizing variation across genome-wide resequencing data from 32 Puffinus individuals, based on 1 304 832 autosomal SNPs. (C) PCA of the same individuals using only the 61 highly-differentiated SNPs. The inset in the top right corner depicts the assignment probability to each population (columns) of every individual (circles) using our SNP panel obtained with assignPOP (15). These figures are for illustrative purposes only. The description of the dataset and statistical methods used will be outlined in detail in a manuscript in preparation (Izquierdo-Arànega, Cuevas-Caballé, et al. in preparation).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

  • The BioGenome Portal: a web-based platform for biodiversity genomics data management.
    Righi E, Guigó R. Righi E, et al. NAR Genom Bioinform. 2025 Mar 22;7(1):lqaf020. doi: 10.1093/nargab/lqaf020. eCollection 2025 Mar. NAR Genom Bioinform. 2025. PMID: 40124712 Free PMC article.
  • Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life.
    Lewin HA, Robinson GE, Kress WJ, Baker WJ, Coddington J, Crandall KA, Durbin R, Edwards SV, Forest F, Gilbert MTP, Goldstein MM, Grigoriev IV, Hackett KJ, Haussler D, Jarvis ED, Johnson WE, Patrinos A, Richards S, Castilla-Rubio JC, van Sluys MA, Soltis PS, Xu X, Yang H, Zhang G. Lewin HA, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Apr 24;115(17):4325-4333. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1720115115. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018. PMID: 29686065 Free PMC article.
  • Indigenous peoples and local communities as partners in the sequencing of global eukaryotic biodiversity.
    Mc Cartney AM, Head MA, Tsosie KS, Sterner B, Glass JR, Paez S, Geary J, Hudson M. Mc Cartney AM, et al. NPJ Biodivers. 2023;2(1):8. doi: 10.1038/s44185-023-00013-7. Epub 2023 Apr 3. NPJ Biodivers. 2023. PMID: 38693997 Free PMC article. Review.
  • Standards recommendations for the Earth BioGenome Project.
    Lawniczak MKN, Durbin R, Flicek P, Lindblad-Toh K, Wei X, Archibald JM, Baker WJ, Belov K, Blaxter ML, Marques Bonet T, Childers AK, Coddington JA, Crandall KA, Crawford AJ, Davey RP, Di Palma F, Fang Q, Haerty W, Hall N, Hoff KJ, Howe K, Jarvis ED, Johnson WE, Johnson RN, Kersey PJ, Liu X, Lopez JV, Myers EW, Pettersson OV, Phillippy AM, Poelchau MF, Pruitt KD, Rhie A, Castilla-Rubio JC, Sahu SK, Salmon NA, Soltis PS, Swarbreck D, Thibaud-Nissen F, Wang S, Wegrzyn JL, Zhang G, Zhang H, Lewin HA, Richards S. Lawniczak MKN, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Jan 25;119(4):e2115639118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2115639118. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022. PMID: 35042802 Free PMC article.
  • Earth Biogenome Project: present status and future plans.
    Gupta PK. Gupta PK. Trends Genet. 2022 Aug;38(8):811-820. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2022.04.008. Epub 2022 May 19. Trends Genet. 2022. PMID: 35599020 Review.
See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Lewin H.A., Robinson G.E., Kress W.J., Baker W.J., Coddington J., Crandall K.A., Durbin R., Edwards S.V., Forest F., Gilbert M.T.P. et al. . Earth BioGenome Project: sequencing life for the future of life. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018; 115:4325–4333. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blaxter M.L. Sequence locally, think globally: the Darwin Tree of Life Project. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2022; 119:e2115642118. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lewin H.A., Richards S., Aiden E.L., Allende M.L., Archibald J.M., Bálint M., Barker K.B., Baumgartner B., Belov K., Bertorelle G. et al. . The Earth BioGenome Project 2020: starting the clock. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2022; 119:e2115635118. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Casas-Sainz A.M., de Vicente G. On the tectonic origin of Iberian topography. Tectonophysics. 2009; 474:214–235.
    1. Tuel A., Eltahir E.A.B. Why is the Mediterranean a climate change hot spot?. J. Clim. 2020; 33:5829–5843.