Genomics of Diseases in Wildlife Workshop; Colorado State University; June 3-9, 2018

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

The award provides funding for graduate students to participate in a Genomics of Diseases in Wildlife workshop. The workshop represents an important training and collaborative research experience focused on developing tools for the analysis of genetic sequence data to address problems in wildlife disease ecology and evolution. This experience provides hands on training to students and scientists through hands on exercises focused around a collaborative project in infectious wildlife disease. The tools participants learn will enable future research that capitalizes on the growing availability of genetic data. The workshop targets early and mid-career professionals with expertise in four major scientific disciplines to examine host-pathogen interactions in wildlife: genome sciences; wildlife biology; veterinary sciences; and wildlife management and conservation. Workshop organizers are focusing particular attention on assembling a diverse set of participants, with approximately equal gender balance, and attention to ethnic as well as regional diversity. Participants in this Genomics of Diseases in Wildlife will be taken from start to finish in the process of using next generation genomic sequence data to address questions in the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases of wildlife. The workshop will address which sequence data are appropriate to address what questions in the area of ecology and evolution of infectious disease. Participants will learn to assess sequence read quality and coverage, map reads to a reference genome, perform de novo assembly of host and pathogen genomes, and annotate assembled genomes. From there, they will assess read quality, create alignments for comparative analyses within and among hosts and pathogens. Several forms of analysis will be included with a focus on comparative genomics across space and time, including the patterns of evolution associated with disease outbreaks. All of these activities will focus on recently available sequence related to a current problem in wildlife disease ecology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.