The Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) Initiative

The most significant challenge in the post-genomic era is connecting genotype to quantitative phenotype in basic and applied biology - the Genome to Phenome challenge. ENCODE (ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements) projects have shown that a coordinated genome-wide identification of functional elements in multiple species is an invaluable resource for the dissection of genotype to phenotype relationships.

The phenotypic diversity in domesticated animals provides unique opportunities to study such relationships. The FAANG consortium (www.animalgenome.org/community/FAANG) aims to promote and coordinate an international project to identify all functional elements in these species. This project is expected to provide critical information to enable the application of molecular phenotypes to prediction of complex phenotypes, and as such to have an important impact on studies and applications in agriculture, biomedical science, evolution and environment.

Several groups worldwide are starting pilot projects. Common aims are to improve the functional annotation of the genomes of major domesticated species, and to develop the analytic framework needed for the FAANG initiative. “WUR-pigENCODE” (on pig) is an ongoing Dutch pilot project (Wageningen University). The INRA project “FR-AgENCODE” (on cattle, goat, pig, chicken; in collaboration with EMBL-EBI, University of Edinburgh and Wageningen University) and a USDA-NIFA project by UC Davis (on chicken, cattle, and pig; in collaboration with three US Species Genome Coordinators, UCSC, and EMBL-EBI) will start in January 2015.

This presentation will provide an overview of the FAANG initiative (see poster by Clarke, L. et al.) and illustrate these pilot projects, including the implications for adequate coordination among parallel initiatives.