Report of the 14th Genomic Standards Consortium Meeting, Oxford, UK, September 17-21, 2012.

Neil Davies,Alexei Drummond,Norman Morrison,Matthias Obst,Renzo Kottmann,Frank Oliver Glöckner,Peter Sterk,Jonathan Coddington,Sarah Bourlat,Dawn Field,Robert Robbins,Linda Amaral-Zettler,Jack A Gilbert,Chris Meyer,Katharine Barker,Lynn Schriml,Mesude Bicak,John Deck,Steven Stones-Havas

doi:10.4056/sigs.4319681

Abstract

This report summarizes the proceedings of the 14th workshop of the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) held at the University of Oxford in September 2012. The primary goal of the workshop was to work towards the launch of the Genomic Observatories (GOs) Network under the GSC. For the first time, it brought together potential GOs sites, GSC members, and a range of interested partner organizations. It thus represented the first meeting of the GOs Network (GOs1). Key outcomes include the formation of a core group of “champions” ready to take the GOs Network forward, as well as the formation of working groups. The workshop also served as the first meeting of a wide range of participants in the Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) initiative, a first GOs action. Three projects with complementary interests – COST Action ES1103, MG4U and Micro B3 – organized joint sessions at the workshop. A two-day GSC Hackathon followed the main three days of meetings.

Highlights

The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) formed in 2005 to tackle the challenge of working as a community towards improving the quantity and quality of contextual data made accessible for genomes and metagenomes [1]
How to bring together macro-ecological theories that assume no significant interactions among species (e.g. [30,31].) with those that are explicitly based on interactions (e.g [32].) could provide an overarching challenge for the Genomic Observatories (GOs) Network to address
Ecological network theory is likely to be very important for the GOs Network, which should represent a powerful source of data on:

Summary

Introduction

The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) formed in 2005 to tackle the challenge of working as a community towards improving the quantity and quality of contextual data made accessible for genomes and metagenomes [1]. Genomic Observatories, offer the opportunity of studying much larger numbers of wellcontextualized (e.g., with environmental sensors) genes (up to whole genomes), individuals, and species within and between ecosystems Such capabilities provide challenges (e.g., how to treat such large heterogeneous data streams) as well as opportunities to advance ecological theory. Place-based genomic research requires sampling and sharing of physical biodiversity (samples/specimens), often among institutions and across national borders These exchanges of biomaterials (and associated digital data and metadata) take place over periods of many years. A third relevant topic, Informatics (tracking materihttp://standardsingenomics.org als and data from collection through analyses and publication) was already the theme of another breakout group (Biocode Commons) This session provided the chance for interested GSC 14 participants to consider governance models for the GOs Network. There are no genomic (many genes across genome) and few genetic (single or small number of genes or markers) methods considered for contribution to the MSFD indicators

Methods

Results

Conclusion