How did Zoonomia get started? 

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh (Uppsala University/Broad Institute) started the project in 2015, with the goal of learning more about the genomic basis of mammalian traits and their relevance to human health. Since then, the project has grown to include a large team of collaborators from around the world.

How did you decide which mammalian species to sequence?

It was not easy to select the 240 species included in the initial phase of our project from among the 6,000+ mammalian species living today. We first identified species already sequenced by other researchers, then added 130 more, prioritizing species from across the mammalian tree, and those with especially amazing traits. 

<insert name of awesome mammalian species!> is not included yet. Will additional mammalian species eventually be sequenced and added to the project?

We hope so! Once new genome assemblies become available, they can be added to our alignment and compared to other species. 

How can I match chromosome/scaffold names between NCBI and TOGA?