The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is considered a symbol of China and is a much loved animal all around the world. It is also one of the worlds most endangered species, making it a flagship species for conservation efforts. As the first fully sequenced Ursidae and the second fully sequenced carnivore after the dog, the whole genome sequence and annotation data provide an unparalleled amount of information to aid in understanding the genetic and biological underpinnings of this unique species, and will help contribute to disease control and conservation efforts.In 2008, BGI completed a first draft of the genome sequence of a three-year old female giant panda named Jingjing, who was used as a model for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China (doi: 10.1038/nature08696). Using second-generation Illumina GA sequencing data, the first de novo genome assembly was created using short-read sequencing technology. Here you will find the giant panda genome sequence assembly as well as annotation information, such as gene structure and function, non-coding RNAs, and repeat elements. Also presented are polymorphism information detected in the diploid genome, including SNPs, indels, and structural variations (SVs). The assembly was done using SOAPdenovo software and the panda genome data is visualized via MapView, which is powered by the Google Web Toolkit.

Here we present genomic data for the domestic cucumber (Cucumis sativus var. sativus L.). The cucumber is a member of the Cucurbitaceae or cucurbit family, a family of great agricultural and horticultural importance that also includes species such as melons, gourds and squashes. A biologically interesting as well as an economically relevant species, it is used as a model system for plant sex determination and vascular biology studies.The domestic cucumber has seven pairs of chromosomes and a haploid genome of 367 Mb, a smaller genome for the Cucurbitaceae family. The genome was sequenced and assembled with N50 contig and scaffold sizes of 19.8 Kb and 1.14 Mb, respectively. Using the genetic map, 72.8% of the assembled sequences were anchored onto the 7 chromosomes. A total of 26,682 genes were predicted in the current cucumber genome.

Here we present whole-genome resequencing data of 40 domesticated and wild silkworms (Bombyx). The domesticated silkworm (Bombyx mori) is of great economic interest and has been domesticated for more the 5,000 years. An organism with a mid-range genome size (~432 Mb), it often serves as a model insect for the order Lepidoptera. A number of wild varieties of silkworms exist as well, including the Chinese wild silkworm (Bombyx mandarina) from which the domesticated silkworm originated.Each of the silkworm varieties was sequenced to ~3X coverage, representing 99.88% of the genome. These sequences were then used to create a single-base pair resolution genetic variation map of the silkworm. SNP sets were obtained separately for the pool of 29 domesticated strains and the pool of 11 wild varieties. The number of SNPs in the domestic versus wild varieties was approximately 14 million and 13 million, respectively. In addition to SNPs, approximately 0.33 million small insertion-deletions (indels) and 35 thousand structural variants (SVs) were identified among the 40 varieties. Over three-fourths of the SVs overlapped with transposable elements.A total of 1,041 candidate regions Genomic Regions of Selective Signals (GROSS) were identified. These regions cover 12.5 Mb (2.9%) of the genome and may reflect genomic footprints left by artificial selection during domestication, as they include 354 protein-coding genes that were identified as good candidates for domestication genes.We observed that 159 genes from GROSS were expressed in on different B. mori tissues on day 3 of the fifth larval instar as a reference strain, and were enriched in tissues of silk gland, midgut, and testis. The genes expressed in silk gland are involved in the synthesis of silk proteins, including fibroin and sericin. Midgut-enriched genes are related to the metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids and lipids. And genes enriched in the testis are annotated as having binding, catalytic, and motor activity related to reproduction.The reference genome for this project was the Japanese wild silkworm (NCBI Accession Number NC_003395).