Structural variants (SVs) represent an important class of genetic variants that have the potential to significantly impact the function and regulation of genes, influence phenotypic variation and cause a range of diseases. Unfortunately, SVs remain challenging to accurately detect using short-read sequencing data and are hence poorly characterized and overlooked in most species.
Several CIGENE researchers has contributed to a recent publication in Nature Communications, that presents an approach for reliable SV discovery in Atlantic salmon using whole genome sequencing of 492 fish from diverse wild and farmed populations. The comparison of SVs from wild and farmed fish indicates polygenic selection on behavioral traits during domestication and provides novel insight into the role of SVs in genome evolution and the genetic architecture of domestication traits.
Solid work!