The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Bethesda, Maryland, is getting its primate house in order. First, the institute played a major role in sequencing the human genome. Then the chimp's DNA got the all-star treatment. And when comparing the two genomes proved incredibly useful for understanding our own DNA, NHGRI set its sights on the rhesus macaque, marmoset, orangutan, and gorilla. Now the gibbon is getting in line.
Yesterday, NHGRI added the northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys)--and 15 other species--to its burgeoning list of genomes to decipher. Once the gibbon genome is in hand, evolutionary biologists will have a sequence for each of the major branches of the primate family tree. The work should help researchers understand primate evolution and the role of genes in disease.
From the moment the first complex organism--a nematode--was sequenced in 1998, researchers have struggled to make sense of a veritable alphabet soup of A's, T's, G's, and C's. Sequencing other genomes has helped: Comparing the DNA of related organisms has been key to identifying regulatory regions of DNA and other essential genome components. To continue its quest to understand how genomes work, NHGRI has regularly solicited proposals from researchers asking them to recommend the next candidates for sequencing.
The gibbon won out because it's a second cousin to humans and, as such, will eventually help biomedical researchers pinpoint the genetic bases of disease, says NHGRI Director Francis Collins. The institute expects to have the genome sequenced within 3 years. NHGRI also agreed to improve on the sequences of the elephant, cat, bat, rabbit, armadillo, guinea pig, and tree shrew, mammals for which NHGRI had previously decided to produce just a small amount of sequence.
But at the same time that NHGRI is working on species at the tips of the evolutionary tree, the institute is also reaching down to the roots. It announced that its sequencing centers will decipher the genomes of 10 protists, some of which have closely related colonial and unicellular species. In doing so, researchers hope to pinpoint the genes key to the evolution of multicellular life. Also new to the sequencing pipeline are five common fungal pathogens and 50 yeast strains.
As each new genome sees the light of day, it should help researchers better understand our own genome. "There's so much about the genome that we have relatively little information about," says David Anderson, director of the Washington National Primate Research Center in Seattle, Washington. "You want to get as much comparative sequence as you can."
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