NCM 2023 Singapore: Revolutionizing agriculture: harnessing the power of nanopore sequencing in genomics

Animal agriculture has the amazing ability to turn low quality forages into high quality products for human consumption. Continued expansion of the global population puts increased pressure on agricultural systems to achieve more with less. With nanopore sequencing, the Bovine Long Read Consortium is exploring the dark genome regions, where short-read sequencing technologies cannot be used. This new era of long-read data is allowing us to access new sources of genetic variation, providing promising targets for selection. However, animal agriculture also comes at a cost as methane is emitted as a by-product of digestion. We are using nanopore reads to capture microbiome variation and use that information to identify naturally low methane emitting animals. By combining these different aspects, we look into a future where we can feed the world, without hurting it.