BGI Research

Nanopore Sequencing for Epigenetic Decoding: Applications, Analytical Constraints, and Translational Prospects

Epigenetic regulation involves multiple molecular layers, including DNA and RNA modifications, histone post-translational modifications (PTMs), and chromatin accessibility. These processes contribute to cell identity, development, and disease, but their measurement remains techni...

Structural Variants in the Human Genome Associated With Gut Microbiome and Blood Metabolic Traits With Potential Causal Links

ABSTRACT Research on genetic variants affecting the gut microbiome and blood metabolites has mainly focused on single nucleotide variants (SNPs), leaving structural variants (SVs) largely unexplored. Here, we analyzed high‐coverage (∼42×) whole‐genome sequencing data from 2002 in...

A low-complexity, tissue-function-guided engineering workflow for AlphaFold 3-assisted affinity maturation of a CD21 diagnostic nanobody

High-affinity antibodies with reliable tissue-staining performance are needed for reproducible immunohistochemistry (IHC), yet affinity maturation workflows often optimize recombinant-antigen binding and treat staining in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue as a downstream v...

Non-coding RNA 7SK drives tumor resistance by coupling local oncogenic activation with global transcriptional repression

The conserved non-coding RNA 7SK is a well-established global transcriptional repressor, yet its context-specific functions in cancer and therapy resistance remain paradoxical. Here, we resolve this paradox by uncovering a dual-axis mechanism through which 7SK drives colorectal c...

ExMODE: A comprehensive resource for extremophile genomic and functional exploration

ExMODE (https://db.genomics.cn/exmode/) integrates 3518 samples to build a unified extremophile resource, which hosts 1.35 billion habitat-specific non-redundant genes, 5.25 million representative protein structures, 67,026 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and 164,132 biosynt...

Genomic predisposition is associated with the direction of sex chromosome evolution

Sex chromosome evolution is among the most dynamic genomic innovations in vertebrates, yet why some lineages evolve XY while others evolve ZW remains unclear. Using chromosome-level genomes from 19 geckos, we found that gecko sex chromosomes originated independently from 16 ances...

Complete genome-derived metabolic interactions reveal the impact of gut ecology on human health

Abstract Metabolic interactions govern gut microbiome assembly, yet functional rules remain obscured by genomic incompleteness and fragmentation. Here, we leverage 1,150 complete genomes to construct genome-scale metabolic models, demonstrating that draft genomes introduce system...

lncRNAs contribute to caste differentiation as a regulatory layer in ants

Abstract Caste differentiation in ants represents one of the major evolutionary transitions and provides a unique model for studying developmental mechanisms underlying division of labor. Genetically identical individuals follow divergent epigenetically-regulated developmental tr...

Queen loss fails to elicit physiological and transcriptional responses in workers of the invasive garden ant Lasius neglectus.

Colonies of insects with morphologically distinct castes have been called superorganisms because the function of their queens and workers is analogous to the germline and soma in metazoan bodies. In the case of formicoid ants, workers typically have lost the sperm storage organ,...