• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Rare “Walking” Fish Has Genome Sequenced For First Time – But It’s Not Happy About It

October 14, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Some species need more conservation help than others and while this can come in many forms, some species at least have the decency to look grateful in the photo ops. The spotted handfish, however, is not one of them. Despite having its genome sequenced for the very first time, in a bid to improve conservation outcomes for the species, the grumpy little handfish remains looking absolutely fuming.

Researchers from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO estimate that only around 2,000 spotted handfish (Brachionichthys hirsutus) are left in the waters around their native Tasmania, and the species has been listed as critically endangered by the IUCN since 1996. 

Advertisement

The decline of this rare and elusive species, known for “walking” across the seafloor, is thought to be caused by a deadly combination of poor fishing practices in the past, climate change, invasive species, and development along the coastline. 

By sequencing the genome of the spotted handfish, the scientists hope to learn more about how they can best conserve the remaining members of the population, as well as what makes a spotted handfish happy – even if they never look it. 

“The genome helps us understand how an organism functions,” said CSIRO Senior Research Scientist Dr Gunjan Pandey in a statement. “It provides a foundation for understanding gene expression in daily life and offers insights into its evolutionary history. With the genome, we can assist with species detection, monitor populations, and even estimate the fish’s lifespan.”

Sequencing the genome was not an easy task. “Marine species like the Spotted Handfish are notoriously difficult to work with,” said Pandey. Their DNA can become contaminated with microorganisms and degrade very rapidly, which “makes assembling a pure genome extremely challenging,” Pandey added.

A grumpy spotted handfish next to a short white post with eggs at the bottom.

The handfish are also part of a captive breeding population to increase numbers.

Image credit: © Carlie Devine

However, an opportunity arose when a spotted handfish passed away in captivity, and a small amount of poor-quality DNA was able to be sequenced using what is known as a low-input protocol. 

“We customised the entire process – from the set-up of the lab to the bioinformatics software – to sequence a high-quality genome from poor-quality DNA,” Pandey explained. “What used to take six to twelve months, we can now accomplish in days.” 

“This technology holds huge promise for our understanding and conservation of endangered species across Australia and around the world.”

The genome is available via the National Center for Biotechnology Information. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Soccer-Premier League players to be encouraged to take COVID-19 vaccine through government videos
  2. Air New Zealand to require COVID-19 vaccination for international travelers
  3. How Science Helped Catch The Golden State Killer
  4. Possible Oceans Of Venus Might Have Overlapped With Life On Earth

Source Link: Rare “Walking” Fish Has Genome Sequenced For First Time – But It’s Not Happy About It

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Unethical Experiments: When Scientists Really Should Have Stopped What They Were Doing Immediately
  • The First Humans Were Hunted By Leopards And Weren’t The Apex Predators We Thought They Were
  • Earth’s Passage Through The Galaxy Might Be Written In Its Rocks
  • What Is An Einstein Cross – And Why Is The Latest One Such A Unique Find?
  • If We Found Life On Mars, What Would That Mean For The Fermi Paradox And The Great Filter?
  • The Longest Living Mammals Are Giants That Live Up To 200 Years In The Icy Arctic
  • Entirely New Virus Detected In Bat Urine, And It’s Only The 4th Of Its Kind Ever Isolated
  • The First Ever Full Asteroid History: From Its Doomed Discovery To Collecting Its Meteorites
  • World’s Oldest Pachycephalosaur Fossil Pushes Back These Dinosaurs’ Emergence By 15 Million Years
  • The Hole In The Ozone Layer Is Healing And On Track For Full Recovery In The 21st Century, Thanks To Science
  • First Sweet Potato Genome Reveals They’re Hybrids With A Puzzling Past And 6 Sets Of Chromosomes
  • Why Is The Top Of Canada So Sparsely Populated? Meet The “Canadian Shield”
  • Humans Are In The Middle Of “A Great Evolutionary Transition”, New Paper Claims
  • Why Do Some Toilets Have Two Flush Buttons?
  • 130-Year-Old Butter Additive Discovered In Danish Basement Contains Bacteria From The 1890s
  • Prehistoric Humans Made Necklaces From Marine Mollusk Fossils 20,000 Years Ago
  • Zond 5: In 1968 Two Soviet Steppe Tortoises Beat Humans To Orbiting Around The Moon
  • Why Cats Adapted This Defense Mechanism From Snakes
  • Mother Orca Seen Carrying Dead Calf Once Again On Washington Coast
  • A Busy Spider Season Is Brewing: Why This Fall Could See A Boom Of Arachnid Activity
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version