Alpaca

Habitat

The alpaca, Vicugna pacos, is derived from the wild vicuna. The alpaca is only known in the domestic state and is typically found grazing in the mountains of Chile, Peru and Bolivia, where they have been bred for thousands of years. Alpaca animals have been exported to many countries from their native habitat South America.

Biology

The alpaca is a member of the Camelidae family, which explains the many camel-like features. Other members of Camelidae that are closely related to the alpaca are vicuna, llama and guanaco. Two types of alpaca exist, Huacaya and Suri, distinguished by their fiber properties of their coats. The alpaca maintains a fur-like coat over its entire body and presents in variable body size and coat color. Currently, the alpacas are a popular source of wool fiber due to its high quality.

Female alpacas usually are ready to breed at 16-18 months of age with pregnancy lasting on average 11 months. Interestingly, alpacas can interbreed with llamas and produce fertile offspring. The alpaca is generally a very curious animal and friendly to humans. Alpaca have long pointed ears and, unlike the camel, no dorsal hump. The alpaca diet consists mainly of grassy vegetation. Under good conditions alpaca are known to live up to 29 years of age.

Sequencing Plan

The Vicugna pacos represents another member of the Artiodactyl order and is one of 24 planned mammalian species to be sequenced at low coverage as part of an initiative to expand sequencing of mammalian genomes. These additional mammalian genomes were chosen to maximize evolutionary clade information and, where possible, to take advantage of known biological models. The additional mammalian genome sequencing initiative calls for 2X whole genome coverage of plasmids plus a low coverage of fosmid end sequences for each selected mammal. For more information regarding the mammalian genomes represented in this initiative, please visit the Genome Sequencing Proposal page. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) is providing funding for the sequence characterization of the alpaca genome.

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Contacts

Name	Affiliation
Wes Warren	The Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine

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