The Biodiversity Genomics Interest Group (BGIG) addresses the intersection of standards in the specimen and genomics realms.   TDWG has historically focused on specimen databases with little formal integration with a body focusing on genomics. However, recently we have seen a swell of interest in coupling sequence data with its environmental and taxonomic context.  For instance, the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) has been promoting the acquisition of well-curated specimens, photos, and sequence data to define a “barcode” record.  The Moorea Biocode Project has been sequencing and accessioning specimens for an entire island ecosystem.  Meanwhile, the Genomics Standards Consortium (GSC) has a fast-growing Biodiversity Working Group (GBWG) focusing on building appropriate linkages between the genomics and biodiversity communities.  

All of this interest in this field of study leads us to the question of standards and how best to integrate the key standards in these two fields - Darwin Core (TDWG) and MIxS (GSC).   (MIxS = the “Minimum Information about Any (x) Sequence “(MIxS) specification).

Given that specimen and genomics systems (e.g. LIMS, sequence repositories) have been poorly integrated in the past and in fact, have largely different cultures, we also need to develop semantic systems for integrating federated systems; this requires close collaboration with other interest groups (e.g. RDF interest group, GUID interest group).

15-30 people are expected to attend this interest group and this meeting will be closely linked to the Genomics Observatories Symposium. 

Agenda

• Standards integration (DwC  & MIxS)
• Tagging and tracking across systems (e.g. BiSciCol project)
• Use case development
• Discussion of adopting this as a formal interest group (see proposed charter at http://tinyurl.com/43hy279)