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

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.

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.

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.

The CBP workflow (see main text for explanation).

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.

(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).