Participants of the Genome 10K consortium at the annual conference, which is now taking place in New York, announced the launch of the international project "Vertebrate Genomes", its task is to collect the genomes of all 66 thousand vertebrate species living on the planet today. Gizmodo tells 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, the goal of which was to sequence 10,000 vertebrate genomes. Initially, 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 cost and simplification of sequencing methods, it became clear that the project would complete its tasks in a few years. Over the past three years, the project participants have been comparing the main technologies for DNA sequencing and analysis of the results obtained in order to choose the one that will create "platinum genomes".
Yesterday, Genome 10K members announced the launch of a new Vertebrate Genome Project, which aims to collect male and female genomes from 66,000 vertebrate species. The project will involve 150 scientists representing 50 organizations from 12 countries. According to one of the founders of the project, Oliver Ryder, as a result, biologists will be able to understand the reasons for the extinction of species, including whether there have been closely related crosses in the history of the species, "bottlenecks", as a result of which the genetic diversity of the species has decreased or deletions - mutations that can "turn off »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 species of vertebrates, 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 Noah's Ark Genomic database.
Participants plan to sequence short sections of genomic DNA and collect ever longer sequences from them up to the whole chromosome, and then "glue" them using algorithms specially developed for the project.
Previously, researchers were able to read a person's genome on a smartphone-sized pocket sequencer. The device set the record for the longest reading of a DNA molecule, it was able to sequence sequences up to 882 thousand base pairs.
Ekaterina Rusakova
