Presented Preliminary Results on Lerista Limb Reduction at Genome10K meeting

I just got back from the annual Genome10K meeting held at Rockefeller University in New York City. This year’s meeting was more a joint meeting of the Vertebrate Genomics Project and the Earth Biogenome Project initiatives, as well as numerous smaller consortia focused on particular taxa or geographic areas. It was great being able to present some of my preliminary results to others investigating comparative genomics questions in vertebrate organisms. The meeting was dominated by folks studying mammals and birds, where hundreds of genomes are now in place and are allowing for some really interesting questions to be addressed. My work served to highlight how powerful squamate reptiles can be as a model organism for studying evolutionary biology, and I hope that I was able to convince some in attendance that more investment in genomes for squamates is vital.

The meeting was also great for getting caught up on new sequencing technologies and approaches, methods for assembling high-quality genomes, and many other technical aspects dealing with the production of genomic resources. Hats off to the efforts of the VGP the past couple years, where major gains have been made in improving methodologies for producing high quality genome assemblies. Overall, the organizers put together a very nice meeting that I’ll be sure to attend again in the future!

The title slide from my presentation at the meeting.