The Missing Pieces of the Marmoset Genome

Researchers resolve previously inaccessible regions linked to immunity, disease modeling, and variant analysis

August 25, 2026
3 min

The Pathologist

Overview

Researchers have assembled a complete genome for the common marmoset, resolving previously missing regions.

Background

The common marmoset is increasingly recognized as a valuable model for studying human diseases due to its genetic proximity to humans and its susceptibility to age-related memory loss. Understanding its genome is crucial for advancing research in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Data Highlights

The study produced a complete telomere-to-telomere assembly and three near-complete haplotypes, adding over 88 million bases of previously unresolved sequences.

Key Findings

The new reference genome covers centromeres, sex chromosomes, and the major histocompatibility complex.
Seventy percent of chromosomes across the four haplotypes were assembled from telomere to telomere.
More than 99 percent of each genome was estimated to be complete and accurate.
Alignment of short-read data from 40 marmosets to the new reference reduced technical artifacts in variant calling.
Of 81 human loci associated with Alzheimer’s disease, 76 had candidate marmoset counterparts.