The LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, TBG, is dedicated to genomic biodiversity research. The focus ranges from unicellular organisms to mammals, for which genomic data are not available yet. TBG will sequence 1000 genomes each year of these under-studied organisms. This data will not only be made available for comparative genomics research, but will also be studied in applied (translational) fields such as natural product genomics, genomic biomonitoring and functional environmental genomics. As a first highlight, the complete genome of the blue whale as well as six other rorqual species were decrypted for the first time*. This allowed to study the evolutionary history of the largest animals in the world to understand how their diversity could evolve in the oceans without geographical barriers. The investigated rorquals have a high genetic diversity, which contributes to the recovery of their populations after the whaling moratorium 1978.

* Árnason, et al. (2018). Science advances 4.4: eaap9873