** AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** AGRICULTURAL GENOMICS HAS ADVANCED RAPIDLY OVER THE LAST DECADE, LARGELY DRIVEN BY TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS RELATED TO SEQUENCE DATA GENERATION AND ANALYSIS. THIS HAS LED TO DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-QUALITY REFERENCE GENOMES, SNP-CHIPS AND LOW-PASS SEQUENCING/IMPUTATION WHICH IN TURN HAS ENABLED GENOMIC SELECTION AND THE GENERATION OF RAW DATA AT UNPRECEDENTED SCALE. HOWEVER, THE GENOMICS COMMUNITY HAS NOT YET DEVELOPED A COMPREHENSIVE AND HIGHLY CURATED DATASET WHICH CAN BE USED AS A BENCHMARK TO EVALUATE THE COMPLETENESS OR ACCURACY OF THE HIGH THROUGHPUT DATA BEING GENERATED TODAY. CURRENTLY, EACH LAB DEVELOPS THEIR OWN STANDARDS, IF DONE AT ALL, WHICH IS LABORIOUS AND DOES NOT FACILITATE COMPARISON ACROSS DATASETS LEADING TO INEFFICIENCY AND MAKES IT DIFFICULT, OR IMPOSSIBLE, TO EVALUATE CORRECTNESS WITHIN AND BETWEEN DATASETS. THIS PROPOSAL IS FOCUSED ON DEVELOPING AND DISSEMINATING HIGHLY CURATED REFERENCE MATERIAL FOR CATTLE THAT CAN BE USED TO BENCHMARK VARIANT CALL SETS AND PROVIDEA COMPREHENSIVE SET OF ANCILLARY DATA NEEDED FOR MOST GENOMIC ANALYSES. ADDITIONALLY, WE WILL PRODUCE CELL LINES FOR THE REFERENCE SAMPLES TO ENABLE FUTURE DATA COLLECTION FOR TECHNOLOGIES NOT YET DEVELOPED.