A genome skim database for vascular plant species in Norway and Polar Regions

Genetic resources are essential for studies on, and management of, biodiversity. PhyloNorway contains low cover genome skim data for 2056 specimens of 1900 vascular plant taxa mainly from Norway and Polar regions. For the majority of these, the full nuclear ribosomal cluster is assembled and for more than half of these, the full chloroplast is fully assembled. The database contains near 600 genera of 112 plant families, and covers the majority of species found in Iceland, Fennoscandia, and the Arctic.

It is essential that such a database is of high quality as any error in the database will follow downstream use of the data. All sequences are from herbarium vouchers deposited at The Arctic University Museum of Norway, Tromsø (herbarium TROM) and have been identified by our foremost expert in plant taxonomy. The sequences have been checked for contamination by endophytes, such as fungi and microbes, as well as any swapping of samples etc., and therefore represent a reliable source of genetic information.

The database includes standard and additional barcodes. DNA barcoding is a powerful tool for identifying species from any type of tissue (including degraded DNA from processed plants as e.g. herbal mixtures and many thousands of year old DNA of plants preserved in lake sediments or permafrost).

The full chloroplast and nuclear ribosomal assembly represent a huge extension compared to standard barcodes, and can be used as super barcodes, a source for development of primers and captures probes, and are essential for studies on evolution. Further, the sequencing depth allows for assembling part of the nuclear genome which further expands the application of the database.

PhyloNorway is part of the Norwegian Barcode of Life (NorBOL) network financed by the Research Council of Norway.