Comprehensive variation discovery in single human genomes

Complete knowledge of the genetic variation in individual human genomes is a crucial foundation for understanding the etiology of disease. Genetic variation is typically characterized by sequencing individual genomes and comparing reads to a reference. Existing methods do an excellent job of detecting variants in approximately 90% of the human genome, however calling variants in the remaining 10% of the genome (largely low-complexity sequence and segmental duplications) is challenging. To improve variant calling, we developed a new algorithm, DISCOVAR, and examined its performance on improved, low-cost sequence data. Using a newly created reference set of variants from finished sequence of 103 randomly chosen Fosmids, we find that some standard variant call sets miss up to 25% of variants. We show that the combination of new methods and improved data increases sensitivity several-fold, with the greatest impact in challenging regions of the human genome

The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution.

The discovery of a living coelacanth specimen in 1938 was remarkable, as this lineage of lobe-finned fish was thought to have become extinct 70 million years ago. The modern coelacanth looks remarkably similar to many of its ancient relatives, and its evolutionary proximity to our own fish ancestors provides a glimpse of the fish that first walked on land. Here we report the genome sequence of the African coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae. Through a phylogenomic analysis, we conclude that the lungfish, and not the coelacanth, is the closest living relative of tetrapods. Coelacanth protein-coding genes are significantly more slowly evolving than those of tetrapods, unlike other genomic features. Analyses of changes in genes and regulatory elements during the vertebrate adaptation to land highlight genes involved in immunity, nitrogen excretion and the development of fins, tail, ear, eye, brain and olfaction. Functional assays of enhancers involved in the fin-to-limb transition and in the emergence of extra-embryonic tissues show the importance of the coelacanth genome as a blueprint for understanding tetrapod evolution