ST. LOUIS, MO. – December 1, 2011 – Cofactor Genomics, a leading biotechnology company, announced today the release of products and services for researchers to selectively enrich, sequence, analyze and detect variants in coding and regulatory regions of the Bovine (cow) genome. This will permit researchers to investigate and discover variation across any breed of beef and dairy cattle and will accelerate the pace of scientific research and discoveries for one of the world’s largest food sources.
Cofactor Genomics collaborated with members of the Bos taurus community and the USDA, who provided mRNA and EST data, to design probes to capture the most comprehensive set of coding and regulatory regions possible. Cofactor utilized the Bos taurus assembly from the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at University of Maryland, called UMD3.1, as the foundation for the development of their in-solution capture product.
The exome capture strategy will allow researchers to selectively pull-down and sequence approximately 46 Mb of the cow genome (15% of the total size of the genome) for hypothesis-neutral marker and haplotype analysis as well as study and selectively breed for disease resistance, carcass quality, and palatability. The Bovine Capture product is available under Cofactor’s Bench To Barnyard™ family of products and services and is initially available as a service, providing hybridization, library generation, sequencing, analysis, and visualization services for all samples. Availability is December 1, 2011.
Current research methods leverage technologies that require prior knowledge of genomic variation. These methods include genotyping arrays consisting of SNP’s gathered from Bovine HapMap and other sources and small-scale PCR to assess variation in a small number of genomic regions. In contrast, Cofactor’s product will provide sequence-verified SNP’s, insertions, and deletions, without any prior knowledge of genomic variation, at single-base resolution.
Dr. Jarret Glasscock, CEO and founder of Cofactor Genomics, commented, “The development of an in-solution whole-exome capture strategy for Bos taurus will further allow agricultural researchers to investigate and discover causative variation in cattle, at unparalleled resolution. This product will also allow researchers to probe the UTR and coding regions of the cow genome without spending money to sequence repetitive areas of the genome. Cofactor is excited to lead the way in the agricultural revolution through our Bench To Barnyard™ products and services.”
