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A global effort to map the genomes of all plants, animals, fungi and other life on Earth is entering a new phase as it moves from pilot projects to full-scale production sequencing. A collection of papers published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences describe the project's goals, achievements and next steps.
Harris Lewin is the chair of the EBP Working Group and is a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis. The progress of the EBP in the field of sequencing life is inspiring, from fundamental science to breakthrough applications across a wide range of pressing global problems, such as preventing biodiversity loss and adapting food crops to climate change. It seems like we can achieve the ultimate goal of decoding all life.
The goal of the EBP is to provide a complete DNA sequence catalog of all 1.8 million named species of plants, animals and fungi.
By the end of this century, Earth is predicted to lose 50% of its biodiversity, without action to curb climate change and protect the health of global ecosystems. Creating a digital library of DNA sequence for all known life forms can help generate effective tools for preventing biodiversity loss and pathogen spread.
There is a network of networks.
The project functions as an international network of networks, coordinating numerous group-specific, regional and national-scale efforts.
The project's administrative office is located at the UC Davis Genome Center. The center is the major hub for the California Conservation Genomics Project, a UC-wide project led by Professor Bradley Shaffer at UCLA, which aims to assist the state of California in managing important species using genomic tools.
Phase 1 goals.
The first two years of the EBP were the startup phase. The goal for phase 1 is to produce reference genomes. About 200 such genomes reference have been produced so far, with more than 3000 expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The project has 5,000 scientists and technical staff at 44 member institutions in 22 countries. Most of the major groups of eukaryotes have access to tens of thousands of high-quality samples from museum collections and field biologists. The Africa BioGenome Project is a group of African institutions. The Global Virome Project, an effort to discover new viruses that might pose a threat to the world's population, has joined as an affiliates.
In the first three years, major activities include developing and evaluating standards and strategies, organizing regional, national, and transnational projects, and building communities through regular working committee meetings.
The International Scientific Committee develops standards for the project, as well as committees on Ethics, Legal and Social Issues and Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Recommendations on access and benefit sharing, equity and inclusion in thegenomics community and in indigenous communities within the world's most biodiverse countries will be informed by EBP's proactive stance on understanding ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding the project.
The Earth BioGenome Project 2020: Starting the clock is an article in the National Academies of Sciences. There is a book titled "10.1073/pnas.2115635118".
The National Academy of Sciences has a journal.
The Earth BioGenome Project began genome sequencing in earnest on January 17 of this year.
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