Researchers from Illumina and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have used Illumina's next-generation sequencing technology to create a draft genome sequence for the endangered Tasmanian devil.
The reference Tasmanian devil genome - approximately the same size as the human genome - was sequenced in eight days in one run on Illumina's Hiseq 2000, generating more than 80-fold genome coverage.
Two cancer genomes of affected animals from different parts of Tasmania were sequenced at high coverage as well.
Sequencing, de novo assembly and analysis of genetic variation of the three genomes has been undertaken jointly by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Illumina.
The researchers will use this sequence to find genetic mutations in the transmissible cancer that is ravaging its population.
The results open the door for new research to pick out those specific mutations that drive the cancer and will lay the foundation for ongoing work to trace the spread of disease and inform the development of preclinical tests, conservation strategies and disease therapies.
