Scientists aim to build 'genomic zoo'

Scientists hope to unravel the evolutionary secrets of humans and their biological relatives in a $50 million scheme to sequence the DNA of more than 10,000 vertebrates.

The Genome 10k Project aims to obtain, preserve and sequence the DNA of one species for each genus of living mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.

"No one has ever really known how the elephant got its trunk, or how the leopard got its spots," said one of the project's leaders, David Hassler of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

"This project will lay the foundation for work that will answer those questions and many others."

The "genetic menagerie" involved in the project will have benefits for human and animal health, its creators claim in the Journal of Heredity today, taking advantage of the plummeting costs of sequencing a genome.

"The idea behind the project is to prepare for this third generation of DNA sequencing technology that began with the Humane Genome Project," said Scott Baker from Oregon State University, who edits the journal.

"Whereas that took nearly ten years at a cost of more than $3 billion, the goal now is to sequence an entire genome in less than a week, for a cost of less than $1,000.

"If that happens, the impact would be remarkable. And it will happen – the only question is, how soon?"

It will also help conservation efforts by documenting the genomes and genetic diversity of threatened and endangered vertebrate species.

"By helping scientists predict how species will respond to climate change, pollution, emerging diseases, and invasive competitors, it will support the assessment, monitoring, and management of biological diversity," the scientists, 50 of whom are involved in the project, write.

All living vertebrates descend from a single unnamed marine species that lived 500 to 600 million years ago, background information in the article said.

Scientists know little about its physical appearance, but its descendants share certain characteristics, namely segmented muscles; a forebrain; a midbrain; a hind brain attached to spinal cord and a sophisticated, innate immune system. All of these characteristics led to multi-chambered hearts, bones, teeth and internal skeletons.

By sequencing the DNA of 10,000 vertebrates, one-sixth of the 60,000 species living today, scientists hope to reconstruct the genetic changes that gave rise to the "astonishing diversity" of the modern day.

"We can understand the function of elements in the human genome by seeing what parts of the genome have changed and what parts have not changed in humans and other animals," Professor Hassler said.

"Within our lifetimes, we could get a glimpse of the genetic changes that have given rise to some of the most diverse life forms on the planet."