Target capture sequencing approaches to the study of plant evolution
- luisamarins19
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
This month's ERGA BioGenome Analysis & Applications Seminar will feature two talks on the use of target capture sequencing to study plant evolution. Learn more about these exciting presentations by Lisa Pokorny and Pol Fernández Mató below.
🕚 Monday, June 23rd 2025 - 12:00 PM CEST
▶️ Link to the livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/0wfzw_NPehQ
Abstracts
Target capture sequencing approaches to the study of plant evolution - Lisa Pokorny
Understanding plant evolution requires integrating data across micro- and macroevolutionary scales to uncover the processes shaping biodiversity. Advances in HTS have transformed evolutionary research, providing unprecedented resolution for studying these evolutionary processes and the patterns they result in. However, many plant species have extremely large genomes (often polyploid and with an overabundance of repeated elements), making WGS impractical. Hyb-Seq, a HTS approach that combines target capture sequencing with genome skimming, offers an efficient alternative by selectively recovering both highly-conserved nuclear loci (e.g., orthologs) and broader genomic content (high-copy number regions). Hyb-Seq is particularly powerful for integrating natural history collections into biodiversity research, expanding the scope of evolutionary studies.
Target capture sequencing and the challenge of the largest Eukaryotic genomes: insights from Tmesipteris - Pol Fernández Mató
Building on the basics of target capture sequencing, this case study explores its application in Tmesipteris, a fern genus with the largest known genomes among all eukaryotes. We demonstrate how custom target capture sequencing strategies can overcome the challenges posed by extreme genome size and polyploidy, enabling the study of the previously untapped lineages to obtain novel evolutionary insights.
Speakers
Lisa Pokorny, Ramón y Cajal Researcher at Real Jardín Botánico (RJB-CSIC), Spain.
Lisa graduated (B.Sc. in Biological Sciences) from Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM, Spain), where she also got her M.Sc. in Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity. She got her PhD in Biology from Duke University (Durham, NC, USA). Her postdoctoral trajectory spans RJB-CSIC, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Richmond, UK), ICBGP (UPM-INIA/CSIC, Madrid), and BB (CSIC-MCNB, Catalonia). Her research focuses on understanding of the mechanisms driving the origin, maintenance or loss of biodiversity across spatiotemporal scales. For this she implements molecular HTS approaches (target capture sequencing) and bioinformatic HPC workflows (phylogenomics and population genomics) to bridge evolutionary scales and to unravel biogeographic patterns in land plants (and other organisms).
Pol Fernández Mató, Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-CMCNB), Catalonia
Graduated in Biology from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). He later received a "la Caixa" scholarship to pursue a master's degree in the Erasmus Mundus programme TROPIMUNDO and is currently completing his thesis at the Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-CMCNB) under the supervision of Jaume Pellicer on the Evolution of Giant Genomes in Plants, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities through an FPU grant.
