Dr Laura Kelly is currently leading a new project to build a pan-genome for European ash. This will be based on a new chromosomal-level version of our UK reference genome, and Oxford nanopore data for many trees across the UK and Europe. More information about this project can be found on the website of the Centre for Forest Protection.
The research objectives are to:
• Construct a high-quality ash pan-genome capturing common structural variants
• Use this new resource to identify structural variants associated with ash dieback resistance
• Improve prediction of ash dieback resistance of individual trees by incorporating structural variant data
We released the genome assembly from an individual with low susceptibility to ash dieback disease which will be included in the pan-genome graphs.
We also note that a research group in at Kazimierz Wielki University in Poland have released a chromosomal-level assembly of a Polish ash tree. This can be found here.