ICAR scientists map Indian mithun genome

Mithun (Bos frontalis). (Photo Courtesy: ICAR)

DIMAPUR, JULY 31 (MExN): A team of Scientists of ICAR-National Research Centre on Mithun, Medziphema, Nagaland has presented the first de novo draft genome assembly of Indian mithun (Bos frontalis). Also called gayal, the mithun is an endangered bovine species reared under the tropical rain forests region of North East India, China, Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

A press statement issued by Dr. Abhijit Mitra, Director, ICAR- National Research Centre on Mithun, Medziphmema said the Scientists generated ≈250 Gigabyte (Gb) high quality reads from whole-genome deep sequencing platforms and assembled the sequence data using a hybrid assembly strategy. The final genome assembly constitutes a total length of 3 Gb. 

In the present study, the genome of one adult female mithun from Nagaland was sequenced using multiple next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms including Illumina paired-end and mate-pair reads, Illumina TruSeq synthetic, and PacBio long-read technology. The genome project on Indian mithun is led by Dr. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Principal Scientist of the ICAR-NRCM. While visiting Denmark on DBT Overseas Fellowship, Dr. Mukherjee also developed a collaboration on extensive bioinformatic analyses with the research team from Aarhus University, Denmark led by Dr. Goutam Sahana, the press release stated. 

This study reports the first-ever genome sequence of Indian mithun. Compared to the earlier report of Chinese gayal genome, the mithun genome, reported by the Indian Scientists, is reasonably far more complete (>95%) having a better coverage of 91.5% and gene annotation with 28,044 protein-coding genes. The genomic alignments showed a high degree of similarity between mithun and cattle than other bovine species. 

Mithun (Bos frontalis), is a unique bovine species distributed only in North-Eastern hilly states of India, Bangladesh, northern Burma and in Yunnan province of China. 

Approximately, 98% of mithun population of the world is found in India and as per 19th Livestock Census (2012), there is 0.30 million mithun in the country. Besides having a special socio-cultural status, mithun has tremendous potential for providing livelihoods to the region and is often referred to as "pride of North-East". 

This comprehensive assembly unravelled the genomic architecture of mithun to a great extent and will provide a reference genome assembly to the research community to elucidate the evolutionary history of mithun across its distinct geographical locations, the press release pointed out. 

The report has been published in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Genomics.