CEG research group members Torsten Struck and myself are coordinating the task of Community Sampling, within WP5 of the the EU-funded BioGenomics Europe project. We have now completed our task, well before the deadline of February 2025 set by BGE.

Our task began with annoucing two public calls, both in 2023, for nominating European eukaryotic species for genome sequencing by the general public in the EU and widening countries. Because species vary extensively in genome size, BGE set an upper limit of the sum of genome sizes to 150 Gigabases.

These two calls attacted a total of 596 species nominations. Given the genome size limit of 150 Gb, these were subjected to filtering steps based on feasibility (including genome size in relation to sample size, preservation method) and subsequntly ranked in an automated species selection process that included, among other criteria, taxonomic representation and country representation. The resulting shortlist yielded a total of 94 species covering a wide range of eukaryotic phyla. The flow of the samples through the different steps can be monitored through the online ERGA Genome Tracking Console.

The final Community Samples, of which the last one was collected in September 2024, are currently in the process of being shipped to the sequencing centres. While our Oslo team have been coordinating the sampling process, the sequencing and assembly teams within the BGE project have been processing the community samples already shipped to them.

The very first genome note for a BGE Community Sample, the Iberian sun spider Gluvia dorsalis, was published earlier this month on BioRxiv. We are looking forward to seeing the next 90+ genome notes published!