Annual meeting of the AgroDiv and BReIF projects

From 1 to 3 June at AgroParisTech, the teams behind the AgroDiv (Genomic and functional characterisation of domestic plant and animal diversity as the cornerstone of agroecology: from genome to phenotype) and BReIF (An e-Infrastructure to accelerate the use of diverse biological resources) projects, two projects under the PEPR Agroecology and Digital programme, came together for their annual meeting.

AgroDiv aims to characterise the genetic diversity of nine plant families and nine animal species using more than 20,000 plant accessions and 7,400 animal accessions, with a view to identifying varieties and breeds that are more resilient and robust in the face of current agricultural challenges. This multi-species approach, which covers both animals and plants, is one of the project’s distinctive features.

BReIF works to develop and improve digital infrastructure (data, analyses) for researchers who harness this genetic diversity for the benefit of agroecology. The project facilitates access to data and data-analysis environments by enhancing interoperability between infrastructures such as RARe, IFB BioinfOmics, France Génomique, LIPH4SAS and PHENOME-EMPHASIS.

Among the advances from the two projects presented over the course of these three days were:

• work on pangenomes and their applications;
• the transfer of annotations to pangenome graphs;
• the evolution of recombination in ruminants;
• the estimation of selection coefficients from temporal genetic data;
• genomic prediction of adaptive potential in response to climate change.

Workshops provided an opportunity to explore several resources and tools that have been developed and are available to the scientific community: data portals on genetic resources; genotyping and sequencing technologies; K-mer approaches for searching for sequences in large databases; pan-genomic pipelines; and comparative genomics tools.

The AgroDiv and BReIF projects are helping to establish a national research network focusing on pan-genomics, comparative genomics, and quantitative and population genetics, with a reach extending to Europe and beyond. These three days provided an opportunity to share the latest scientific advances, discover new tools and strengthen collaborations within the research community.