Sequencing the entire genome of a cat is currently the most efficient means to identify DNA variants that cause health problems and traits. However, only ~ 30 – 40% of projects are successful, meaning the causal DNA variant is truly identified. One way to be more successful is to sequence more than one cat with the condition. Whole exome sequencing, which covers only coding portions of genes, can now be accomplished in cats because of the improvement of the cat genome assembly, Felis catus V9.0. Whole exome sequencing is approximately 20% the cost of whole genome assembly and success rate improves when more than one cat is sequenced. Two improvements will be implemented in the cat genomic data processing workflow developed previously using the year 1 funding. In Year 2, a whole exome sequencing workflow will be added. Thus, up to 5 cats with the same condition can be sequenced, which would greatly improve the success rate for health projects. The second improvement will be the addition of structural variant (SV) discovery workflows. For the 60% of projects that fail in the discovery of a causal DNA variant, structural variants are often the cause of the health condition. Workflows for the discovery of structural variants, which are complex DNA rearrangements, are completely different than those that find single nucleotide variants – which is the currently used workflow. Once these workflows are added, DNA variants are examined and tested in the same manner that has been successful in previous projects.
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