Researchers Launch Plan To Sequence 66,000 Species In the UK

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: In the first attempt of its kind, researchers plan to sequence all known species of eukaryotic life -- 66,000 species of animals, plants, fungi, and protozoa -- in a single country, the United Kingdom. The announcement was made here today at the official launch of an even grander $4.7 billion global effort, called the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), to sequence the genomes of all of Earth's known 1.5 million species of eukaryotes within a decade. The U.K. sequencing effort -- dubbed The Darwin Tree of Life project -- will now become part of the EBP mix. The Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hinxton, U.K., says it plans to sequence all known 66,000 species of eukaryotes found within the United Kingdom, except for its overseas territories. Collaborators will include the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Hinxton, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the United Kingdom, and the Natural History Museum in London. Sanger will spend up to 50 million British pounds over 8 years, about 4% of its annual budget, on the first phase of the project, which will focus on developing the processes for sample collection, R&D on sequencing, and computational methods for assembling the genomes. Sanger director Mike Stratton said he expects another 100 million British pounds will be needed over the next 5 to 7 years for the bulk of sample collections and sequencing.

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