Thanks to the innovative pathogen surveillance tool known as Genome Tracker that may be changing. It keeps track of Australia’s progress towards sequencing the full genomes of all more than 250,000 identified species. Our newest, most innovative tool launched just last week. It has a very important role to play in the Australian Reference Genome Atlas (ARGA), which aims to provide broad information about the genomic diversity of Australia’s unique plants and animals.
The Genome Tracker functions as an online dashboard that offers researchers the ability to explore the evolutionary history of species, facilitating a deeper understanding of their adaptations to the distinct Australian landscapes. Genomes of only 2% of the nation’s known and catalogued species have been sequenced even a single time. This shows the amazing potential there is for more research and discovery.
The Role of ARGA and ALA
The ARGA collaborative platform is implemented by the consortium of partners outlined below. These include Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Bioplatforms Australia, Australian BioCommons and the Australian Research Data Commons. The ALA is Australia’s national biodiversity data infrastructure and is hosted by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. This unified approach allows researchers to build off pre-established infrastructure strengths to capitalize on genomic research discoveries.
Dr. Hall spoke passionately to the value of the Genome Tracker. It allows researchers to easily visualize current genomic coverage and identify areas that are still under-represented. “It helps researchers map existing genomic coverage and highlights under-represented areas for research,” he noted. More than just supplying meaningful data, this tool serves to refocus our efforts on the urgent need to explore among Australia’s diverse and rich biodiversity.
Insights into Evolution and Conservation
Genome Tracker plays a crucial role in advancing the understanding of how species have evolved in response to their environments. By examining genomic data, researchers can gain insights into the adaptive traits of various species and their ongoing evolution.
“Genomes help us understand the adaptive traits of species—how they’ve uniquely adapted to their environment and how they’re evolving,” Dr. Hall explained. This knowledge is paramount for ecology, conservation biology, agriculture, and biosecurity. As Australia’s national genomic resource, Genome Tracker hopes to have a genome published from every type of Australian biodiversity. This new effort will help lay the foundation for an even larger future conservation effort.
Specifically, Dr. Hall underscored the important role that genomic research will play to protect biodiversity for future generations. “These are exciting times for biology. Genomes give us roadmaps to trace how life came to be as it is today—and how we can work with that knowledge to protect it for generations to come,” he stated.
Current State of Genomic Coverage
Yet for all its promise, Genome Tracker shows that ancient branches of Australia’s biodiversity now have as little as 32% genomic coverage. This tiny but stark statistic underscores the need for more research — urgent research. We need to fill holes in our understanding and increase our collective understanding of Australia’s evolutionary biology.
Explore the interactive online dashboard here at Genome Tracker. It provides a dynamic research platform that allows scientists to mine, visualize and interrogate genomic information that underpins Australia’s rich environmental heritage. By leveraging this innovative technology, scientists hope to make genomic research more widely accessible and play an important role in advancing more effective conservation strategies.