International Goat Genome Consortium (IGGC)

The mission of the International Goat Genome Consortium (IGGC) will be to increase the genomic tools and information publically available for the goat species. The consortium will collaborate on research and contribute funding, when possible, to accomplish the common goals of the members of the consortium. The consortium membership will be open to any individuals interested in goat genome research to ensure that the tools developed will be applicable to a diverse research base.

The broad goal of the IGGC is to increase the knowledge of the goat genome and use that knowledge to address important biological concerns for improved goat production around the world. The upcoming goat whole genome reference sequence will accelerate researches for genetic regions and genes influencing phenotypes in goat, and combined with information from other ruminant genome sequences, will serve as a backbone for ruminant species. The assembly will also be a genomic resource for animal biomedical research models.
Goat whole genome reference sequence will start with de novo assembly into high quality contigs and continue with information from EST-based virtual goat genome and BAC clones. Additionally, SNP discovery using next-generation sequencing technology is underway to develop initial genetic polymorphism database and SNP chip(s). RH panel, mapping of markers for RH map and HapMap development will be utilized in the following version of the reference genome.

All data will be made publically available. The data may be kept within the consortium until the development of a manuscript is complete, or unless otherwise specified by the specific funding source.

Something similar to the Sheep Consortium policy. In general, this policy describes the areas of potential contribution, gives them some ranking and establishes the baseline for authorship and publications.

Specific roles of the IGGC are as follows:

• Dr Gwenola Tosser-Klopp (INRAE) and Dr Wenguang Zhang (KIZ, IMAU) will provide oversight and coordination of the consortium. Please contact us for any information and participation.
• Wenbin Chen (BGI), Dr Thomas Faraut (INRAE), Dr Alessio Valentini (Unitus) and Xun XU (BGI) will take the lead on assembly of sequence data.
• Yang Dong (KIZ), Dr. Brian L Sayre (VSU) and Shuhong Zhao (HZAU) will assist in the development and annotation of RH mapping.
• Dr Thomas Faraut (INRAE), Dr Jiang Yu (KIZ) and Bo Zhang (BGI) will contribute to the comparative genome analysis of goat genome sequences, between breeds as well as between species.
• Dr Paolo Ajmone (Unicatt), Zhao Jinshan (IMAU), Shengkai Pan (BGI), Dr Alessandra Stella (PTP), Dr Li Xianglong (HBAU) and Zhang Yanjun (IMAU) will coordinate the comparative gene and EST annotation and SNP in silico detection and annotation.
• Dr Simon Boitard (INRAE), Dr Lv Jun (KIZ), Xin Liu (BGI), Dr Magali San Cristobal (INRAE), Dr Bertand Servin (INRAE) and Su Rui (IMAU) will conduct HapMap: diversity aspects and footprints of selection.
• Dr Cord Drögemüller (UB), Dr Thomas Faraut (INRAE), Dr Henri Heuven (UU), Dr Carole Moreno (INRAE), Philippe Mulsant (INRAE), Dr Rachel Rupp (INRAE), Dr Gwenola Tosser-Klopp (INRAE) and Dr Zhang Wenguang (KIZ, IMAU) will participate in SNP discovery, high density SNP chip development, coordination of international SNP chip order and RNAseq analyses, with the help of Sigenae team (www.sigenae.org).
• Other persons involved: Shifeng Cheng (BGI), Omar Faruque (BAU), Hans Lenstra (UU), Xin Li (KIZ), Mario A. Poli (INTA), Lichen Ren(KIZ), Peng Shi (KIZ), Chao Song (BGI), Chen Ye (BGI).

Several venues will be developed for distributing tools and resources generated from this consortium.
Key notes will be presented on the Goat Genome website.

• BAU: Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh
• BGI: Bejing Genome Institute, China
• HBAU: Hebei Agricultural University, China
• HZAU: Huazhong Agricultural University, China
• IMAU: Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, China
• INRAE: Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, France
• INTA: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Argentina
• KIZ: Kunming Institute of Zoology , Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• PTP: Parco Tecnologico Padan, Italy
• UB: University of Bern, Switerland
• UU: Utrecht University, Netherlands
• Unicatt: Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Italy
• Unitus: Università della Tuscia, Italy
• VSU: Virginia State University, USA