Low Coverage Whole Genome Sequencing Improves Precision and Speed of Genomics-Assisted Crop Improvement

Low Cost Per Sample with Twist’s HT 96-plex Library Prep Kit

Date & Time

March 9, 2022 | 10 am PT (1pm ET)

Webinar Description

Microarrays, complexity reduction sequencing (RADseq/GBS), and targeted sequencing are popular tools for precision crop improvement because they are accurate, cheap, and reproducible. However, these methods are underpowered to detect rare and minor population-specific alleles. Whole genome sequencing is a more powerful, but also more expensive, approach for detecting such alleles for precision crop improvement.

To make precision crop improvement faster and more accessible, the Clevenger Lab has developed a low-coverage whole genome sequencing approach that offers the best of both worlds: powerful, whole-genome performance that’s as inexpensive as targeted approaches.


In this webinar you will:
  • How the Clevenger lab’s combining of Twist’s high throughput 96-Plex Library Preparation kit and Khufu informatics reduces the cost of whole genome sequencing to that of arrays or amplicon sequencing
  • About the key benefits of low-cost whole genome sequencing for precision crop improvement, namely, more precise trait mapping in larger populations
  • Why precision crop improvement is inaccessible to smaller programs and how low-coverage whole genome sequencing can change that
Webinar Registration

Speaker

Josh Clevenger
Faculty Investigator | HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
Josh Clevenger was trained in the lab of Peggy Ozias-Akins in plant breeding and genomics at the University of Georgia’s Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics. During his PhD, he was a major contributor in the peanut genome initiative, an industry funded project to sequence the genome of cultivated peanut, develop genetic resources for breeding programs, and provide improved cultivars to maximize profits and provide sustainability at all levels of the peanut industry. After a short USDA-NIFA postdoctoral fellowship, Clevenger worked for Mars-Wrigley on the global nut science team where he designed and deployed genetic improvement projects across 5 continents where peanuts are grown. Clevenger joined HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in the spring of 2020 as a faculty investigator in the Center for Plant Science Sustainable Agriculture. Specifically, Clevenger’s lab is focused on optimizing the computational pipelines to optimize the use of next generation sequencing and genomics in genetic improvement projects involving crops with complex genomes. The lab then seeks out improvement targets that are crucial for on the farm profitability, develops tools for improvement of those targets, and uses advanced breeding techniques to rapidly develop new varieties that maintain yield under threat of pest pressure, stress from extreme temperatures and drought, and mitigate aflatoxin contamination.

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