Genome Curation Workshop – February 2025
Over two weeks, 13 early-career researchers learnt how to curate genomes as part of Project Psyche! This workshop was funded through the Lep10K COST Action (CA23122) & organised by Working Group 3 which focuses on the generation & utilisation of Psyche genomes. Genome curation is the essential last step of genome assembly. It involves carefully stitching pieces of DNA together into chromosomes. This produces a genome assembly where each chromosome is represented by a single sequence – fulfilling the genome quality standards of the Earth Biogenome Project.
First, the participants learnt how to interpret and manipulate Hi-C maps – the format in which genome curation is performed. Using these skills, they were then able to start to curate new genomes for Psyche. Incredibly, over 60 genomes were worked on during this week with many completed!
In addition to equipping researchers with a valuable skill in genomics, we hope that this marks the beginning of the curation of Psyche genomes being performed across Europe in line with the goal of Psyche to build capacity in biodiversity genomics across Europe.
