66,000 pairs of pure and unclean

Genomic "Noah's Ark" launched in the USA

Ekaterina Rusakova, N+1

Members of the Genome 10K consortium at the annual conference, which is currently taking place in In New York, the launch of the international project "Vertebrate Genomes" was announced, its task is to collect the genomes of all 66 thousand vertebrate species living on the planet today. Gizmodo tells you more about the goals and objectives of the project.

In 2009, American biologists David Haussler, Oliver Ryder and Stephen O'Brien founded the Genome 10K project, which aimed to sequence 10,000 vertebrate genomes. At the initial stage, 55 scientists from large zoos, research centers and museums participated in the project. At first, it was unclear how long it would take to assemble genomes of sufficient quality. But with the reduction in cost and simplification of sequencing methods, it became clear that the project would fulfill its tasks in a few years. Over the past three years, the project participants have been comparing the main DNA sequencing technologies and analyzing the results in order to choose the one that will allow creating "platinum genomes".

Yesterday, Genome 10K participants announced the launch of a new project "Vertebrate Genomes", which aims to collect the genomes of male and female individuals of 66 thousand species of vertebrates. 150 scientists representing 50 organizations from 12 countries will participate in the project. According to one of the creators of the project, Oliver Ryder, as a result, biologists will be able to understand the causes of species extinction, including whether closely related crosses, "bottlenecks" occurred in the history of the species, as a result of which the genetic diversity of the species decreased or deletions – mutations that can "turn off" the genes necessary for the survival of the organism.

Together with the announcement of the new project, scientists immediately presented the first results of its work: the genomes of 15 vertebrate species, including the endangered kakapo owl parrot, endemic to New Zealand, and the Australian platypus. These and all other genomes that the researchers plan to collect will be published in the public domain, in the database of the Vertebrate Genomes Project.

The participants plan to sequence short sections of genomic DNA and assemble ever longer sequences from them up to the whole chromosome, and then "glue" them using algorithms specially developed for the project.

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