About us
The Marine Molecular Biology Group at James Cook University uses molecular tools to understand the evolution of marine organisms and how genes and gene products function to drive key processes in marine systems. It is a consortium of researchers including David Miller, Jan Strugnell, David Bourne, Peter Cowman, Norelle Daly and Ira Cooke
Most of our work focuses on keystone taxa in coral-reef systems and important fishery and aquaculture species including corals, sponges, reef fish, cephalopods, lobsters and abalone.
About the data
This site hosts genome assemblies and annotations generated by our group members and close collaborators. Public access is provided to genomes and genome tracks as much as possible, however some unpublished genomes and track data are private. Please contact us if you would like access to a particular resource. If you use data from this site in your research please cite the relevant publication
Contact Us
To discuss collaborative opportunities, please contact: David Miller, Ira Cooke, Jan Strugnell, David Bourne, Peter Cowman or Norelle Daly, using their respective JCU email addresses
For queries relating to the genome browsers on this site, or for information on who to contact regarding a specific genome please email Ira Cooke using the address below
E:ira.cooke@jcu.edu.au ira.cooke@jcu.edu.au
Heliofungia actiniformis
Photograph: Casey Schmidt
Please be aware that this is an early draft assembly with basic gene models. Feel free to use information on individual loci in your research. If you would like to publish work based on the entire genome please contact us.
Hapalochlaena maculosa
Photograph: Dr. Julian Finn. Copyright Museums Victoria / CC BY (Licensed as Attribution 4.0 International)
This genome is published. The relevant publication is;
Whitelaw, B.L., Cooke, I.R., Finn, J., da Fonseca, R.R., Ritschard, E.A., Gilbert, M.T.P., Simakov, O., Strugnell, J.M., 2020. Adaptive venom evolution and toxicity in octopods is driven by extensive novel gene formation, expansion, and loss. Gigascience 9. https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa120
Acropora millepora
Photograph: MDC Seamarc Maldives [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
This genome is published and is now part of RefSeq. The relevant publication is;
Ying, Hua, David C. Hayward, Ira Cooke, Weiwen Wang, Aurelie Moya, Kirby R. Siemering, Susanne Sprungala, Eldon E. Ball, Sylvain Forêt, and David J. Miller. 2019. The Whole Genome Sequence of the Coral Acropora Millepora. Genome Biology and Evolution https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evz077
Acropora tenuis
Photograph: Dr. Gergely Torda
This genome was sequenced by the Reef Future Genomics Consortium (ReFuGe 2020). The relevant publication is;
Cooke, I., Ying, H., Forêt, S., Bongaerts, P., Strugnell, J.M., Simakov, O., Zhang, J., Field, M.A., Rodriguez-Lanetty, M., Bell, S.C., Bourne, D.G., van Oppen, M.J., Ragan, M.A., Miller, D.J., 2020. Genomic signatures in the coral holobiont reveal host adaptations driven by Holocene climate change and reef specific symbionts. Sci Adv 6. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc6318
Lobophytum pauciflorum
Photograph: Dr. Wiebke Wessels
Genomic data for the soft coral Lobophytum pauciflorum. Genome assembly and annotation for this species is a collaboration between James Cook University and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.