About the Project
The BCM-HGSC is sequencing the genome of the cape rock hyrax (Procavia capensis).
The hyrax is a small land mammal from Africa. Although the hyrax resembles a rodent, it is related to the elephant, and its genomic sequence can be compared to that of the African Savannah elephant which has been sequenced.
The low-coverage (2x) Sanger sequence of the hyrax was published as a part of the 29 mammals project (Nature). The Broad Institute produced the low-coverage assembly. The high-quality draft genome sequence upgraded by the BCM-HGSC using the Illumina technology is being prepared for publication.
Frozen kidney tissue from a female rock hyrax named Rosie, who died of old age, was kindly provided by Drs. Tom Alvarado and Jeanette Boylan at the Dallas Zoo. Sequencing for the project is complete.
There have been reported cases of pancreatic islet fibrosis/diabetes mellitus in several adult hyraxes at different zoological parks and the sequence information would be useful in understanding the etiology of the disease.
The sequencing and comparative analysis is funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).