Genes plan sheds light on evolution

4 November 2009 06:14pm

An ambitious project to create a "genome zoo" containing the complete genetic codes of 10,000 vertebrate species has been outlined by scientists.

The scheme relies on DNA sequencing technology so new that it will only become available in the next two years.

The "Genome 10K" project will involve gathering thousands of animal specimens from zoos, museums and university collections around the world and unravelling all their DNA blueprints, or genomes.

The idea was first suggested in April 2009 at a three-day meeting of scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Professor Sydney Brenner, from the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, one of the project's leaders, said: "The most challenging intellectual problem in biology for this century will be the reconstruction of our biological past so we can understand how complex organisms such as ourselves evolved.

"Genomes contain information from the past - they are molecular fossils - and having sequences from vertebrates will be an essential source of rich information."

Details of the proposal are reported in the Journal of Heredity.

Advances in the technology of sequencing - working out the repeating chemical patterns of DNA that form the genetic code - are needed before work on such a large scale becomes feasible. But systems that will allow the scientists to embark on the project are under development and may be available within a year or two.

The researchers hope to be able to sequence an entire genome in under a week at a cost of less than 1,000 US dollars (£600)

Dr Scott Baker, from Oregon State University in the US, who edits the Journal of Heredity, is coordinating efforts to assemble DNA samples from all known species of whales, dolphins and porpoises. He said: "We are adding a new species every year or two, and there is some disagreement about how many actual species of these marine mammals there are. But to date, more than 90 species have been identified and officially recognised that will require tissue or DNA samples."

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