<
https://www.science.org/content/article/once-thought-fantasy-effort-sequence-dna-millions-species-gains-momentum>
"Six years ago this month, scientists launched a massively ambitious effort to
sequence the genomes of some 1.67 million plants, animals, fungi, and other
microbes—essentially all known eukaryotes, or species with complex cells. It
would cost an estimated $4.7 billion and take 10 years, but its leaders argued
that having so many full DNA sequences would clarify life’s evolution, help
with conservation, improve agriculture, and even aid human health.
Today, the so-called Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) remains well short of
raising the necessary billions and is years behind schedule. But it is no
longer pure aspiration, as organizers made clear at a meeting that ended last
week. Its partners around the world have sequenced 3000 genomes so far,
spanning 1060 eukaryotic families, and say they are on track to reach 10,000
species—the goal for the project’s first phase—by 2026.
“We’ve doubled the number of genomes done by the effort in the past 2 years,”
says an architect of the project, genomicist Harris Lewin of Arizona State
University, which is where the EBP secretariat is based. Project leaders now
hope to meet the 1.67 million species goal by 2032, and for hundreds of
millions of dollars less than once predicted thanks to the faster speeds, lower
costs, and greater accuracy of today’s DNA sequencing.
Phase 1 is currently expected to cost $265 million—less than half the initial
estimate—and EBP says it has enough funding committed to cover the work from
France, the European Union Horizon 2020 Program, the United Kingdom’s Wellcome
charity, and other countries, philanthropies, and sources—a metals company
kicked in $25 million to sequence Brazilian species. The investment will pay
off spectacularly, says Antonio Baeza, an evolutionary ecologist at Clemson
University who is not part of the effort. “At some level, we are all involved
with this project because we will all profit from it.”"
Vai
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/276-nauseously-optimistic/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
