Struthio camelus (North African ostrich) genome, bStrCam1, sequence data
The common ostrich (Struthio camelus), or simply ostrich, is a species of flightless bird native to certain large areas of Africa. It is one of two extant species of ostriches, the only living members of the genus Struthio in the ratite order of birds. The North African ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus) is the nominate subspecies of the common ostrich from West and North Africa. It has the largest average size among the subspecies of ostriches, making it the largest living bird (from Wikipedia entries). The cells of this sample are embryonic fibroblasts derived from an HH28 embryo cultured up to 14 days in vitro. The embryo came from eggs shipped from Roaming Acres farm in Lafayette Township, New Jersey. The farm raises ostriches that are a non-pedigreed hybrid of the "blue-necked" Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) and the "red-necked" North African sub-species of the common ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus). The sample was procured by Anna Keyte and Matthew Biegler to generate a high-quality reference genome for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP), and the cells were incubated at the Rockefeller University. Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genome Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Erich D. Jarvis, Giulio Formenti, and Jennifer Balacco.