The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) is a community initiative coordinating the production of a

reference genome A reference genome (also known as a reference assembly) is a digital nucleic acid sequence database, assembled by scientists as a representative example of the genome, set of genes in one idealized individual organism of a species. As they are a ...

for all

eukaryotic The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the Domain (biology), domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a membrane-bound cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms ...

species in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. This involves field sampling and

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The ...

, followed by

sequence assembly In bioinformatics, sequence assembly refers to aligning and merging fragments from a longer DNA sequence in order to reconstruct the original sequence. This is needed as DNA sequencing technology might not be able to 'read' whole genomes in one g ...

and annotation, to generate a catalogue of genomes that meet reference quality standards. As the European regional node of the

Earth BioGenome Project The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) is an initiative that aims to sequence and catalog the genomes of all of Earth's currently described eukaryotic species over a period of ten years. The initiative would produce an open DNA database of biological ...

(EBP), ERGA collaborates with other genome projects worldwide, such as the African BioGenome Project and the

Vertebrate Genomes Project The Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP) is a project which aims to generate high-quality, complete reference genomes of all 66,000 vertebrate species. It is an international cooperation project with members from more than 50 separate institutions and ...

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Background

ERGA was launched in 2020 to build a European initiative with a focus on reference genome production. Community formalisation included establishing the Council of representatives from all participating countries and setting up the Committees to oversee the main stages of the genome generation workflow. Community establishment continued through activities of the Council and Committees, setting up of Core Projects, partnering with technology providers such as

Pacific BioSciences Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (aka PacBio) is an American biotechnology company founded in 2004 that develops and manufactures systems for gene sequencing and some novel real time biological observation. PacBio has two principal sequ ...

and Arima Genomics, publication of a forum article and a community review article, as well as defining the goals, principles, and participation of the ERGA community. Core Projects include the Pilot Project, aiming to complete at least one reference genome from each ERGA-associated country, and the

Horizon Europe Horizon Europe is a seven-year European Union scientific research initiative to help develop a sustainable and livable society in Europe. It is the ninth of the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP9), and the succe ...

funded Biodiversity Genomics Europe Project, a joint endeavour with the International Barcode of Life Europe community, as well as building the ERGA Knowledge Hub that gathers and shares educational materials on biodiversity genomics and related topics to promote knowledge exchange.

References

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External links

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA)
Genome projects