Tonight, I watched Max Schmidt from Geisenheim University in Germany speak about grapevine genomics at London Calling 2024. The title of the session is “Using Oxford Nanopore Sequencing in Grapevine Breeding.” The genome has 19 chromosomes and a total of 450 Mbp. Schmidt and team have been exploring variations and markers in the genome that confer useful properties. They started with kit 12 and then moved on to kit 14. Using PECAT for diploid assembly, they obtained a 900 Mbp assembly. Schmidt investigated useful grape cluster architecture and genomic origins. Schmidt used different assemblers and approaches. They used Nanopore ultra-long sequencing to improve the existing assembly with promising results. Schmidt is now using direct RNA sequencing to learn about grapevine viruses! This session was packed with information, and Schmidt tried several assembly parameters, including RNA-Seq.
