Total sequencing

Maxim Rousseau, Polit.roo

At the BioGenomics2017 conference, which recently ended at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, a new large-scale project was announced. The Smithsonian Biodiversity Genomics Initiative and the Chinese company Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) We intend to sequence the genomes of all species of living organisms on Earth (Elizabeth Pennisi, Science: Biologists propose to sequence the DNA of all life on Earth).

The first stage of the plan will be the sequencing of genomes in species belonging to the eukaryotic domain. This group includes the kingdoms of animals, plants, fungi and protists – unicellular creatures. The new project is called BioGenome Project Earth (EBP). Its initiators have not yet found funding, which is expected to amount to several billion dollars.

Biologist Oliver Ryder of the San Diego Zoo Conservation Research Institute compares this initiative to the Human Genome project, which seemed impossible in the 1980s, but was nevertheless successfully completed in 2006. The consequence of this work was the development of gene technologies, which now make up an industry estimated at $ 20 billion.

The EBP organizers assume that at the initial stage, one genome from each family of eukaryotic organisms (there are about 9,000 of them) will be sequenced in detail. They are supposed to be studied at a level no less than the one at which the human genome is currently being studied. Then, less detailed genome sequences will be obtained for one species from each genus of eukaryotes (about 150 – 200 thousand genera in total). And finally, it will be necessary to obtain at least some degree of details of the genomes for the remaining 1.5 million species. As necessary, these "low-resolution genomes" can be refined by comparing them with the genomes of other species of their genus and family or sequencing more of their DNA chains. The organizers believe that the work will require funding in approximately the same amount as the Human Genome project, for which $2.7 billion, about $4.8 billion, was allocated. translated to the current course. The work, in their opinion, can be completed in ten years.

Scientists see the grounds for such optimism in the fact that the cost of reading the nucleotide chain continues to decrease. As representatives of the company reported at the same meeting Complete Genomics from the California city of Mountain View, they plan to make rough sequencing of one eukaryotic genome possible within a year for no more than a hundred dollars. Recall that the cost of complete sequencing of the genome of one person in 2001 was 100 million US dollars. In 2016, it reached the thousand dollar mark, and we are talking about high-quality sequencing.

In addition, the already available data collected under other projects will help. These include, for example, the Genome 10K Project aimed at reading 10,000 vertebrate genomes, one from each genus; i5K – decoding 5,000 arthropod genomes; B10K – sequencing the genomes of 10,500 bird species, GIGA – a project to sequence 7000 marine invertebrates. EBP will help coordinate, compile, and possibly fund these efforts. Such giants of the genetic industry as the Chinese BGI and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK intend to sequence the genomes of a certain number of species.

The BioGenome Project Earth planning group notes that the biggest challenge of the project may be obtaining DNA samples from the wild. Animal and plant samples stored in museums cannot always be used to isolate high-quality genomic DNA. Even recently collected and frozen samples of plants and animals are not always processed correctly to preserve their DNA. So for a significant part of the species, the material will have to be extracted in nature. Scientists also emphasize the need to develop standards for obtaining high-quality genome sequences and preserving the information associated with them for each organism.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  27.02.2017