Move over, Human Genome Project. Other creatures are in line to get their genes decoded, with hoped-for benefits including not just healthier, longer-living humans but also tastier steaks and sweeter honey. It took 13 years, $300 million US and hundreds of washing machine-sized computers for government-supported scientists to produce the precise chemical code that is the human genetic blueprint.
Now, all that computing power is being used to produce the genetic codes of all sorts of creatures in record time - and at increasingly cheaper costs.
On Tuesday, a consortium of U.S. and Australian government officials will present their plan to map the tammar wallaby's genome to the Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in San Francisco. They say the small kangaroo's genetic blueprint will help the study of human reproduction.
At least three dozen other research teams have succeeded, or are lobbying, to get non-human genomes sequenced. It took researchers about a year and about $80 million to churn out the chimpanzee's genetic code, announced in December. The chicken genome cost about $50 million and the pig's supporters hope to produce a porcine genome for about $35 million. In the case of the kangaroo, researchers expect the final cost to be far below $10 million.
Much of the animal work is being driven by the National Human Genome Research Institute, which led the Human Genome Project. The institute is the top government DNA sequencing agency and has budgeted $163 million this year for sequencing the genomes of things other than human.
"The success of the Human Genome Project has resulted in dramatic decreases in the cost of large-scale sequencing," institute chief Francis Collins said in an e-mail interview. "The remarkable insights coming out of comparative genomics have resulted in an enormous appetite in the scientific community for more and more sequence of more and more organisms."
In March, a draft of the chicken genome was finished, and honey producers are licking their lips over the completion of the bee genome in January. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Alliance for Animal Genome is cobbling to together funding and reserving sequencing capacity to uncover the pig's genetic recipe. Food producers say they can exploit this detailed genetic knowledge to more efficiently manage and breed their herds.
It isn't just public money, then, that's fuelling genome-decoding fever.
On Monday, Cargill Inc. announced that it used the cow genome to develop a genetic test that can sort live cattle for the exact steaks they are expected to produce. Cargill used the cow genome to develop a blood test for genetic markers that show which cattle will produce the best cuts. The company plans to begin using the blood test this summer.
Animal genome researchers expect to yield enormous amounts of data applicable to the human condition. They're using animal genomes to help them identify genes in people and understand how genes are turned on and off at the right times and in the right parts of the body.
By comparing and contrasting the human genome to other organism genomes, scientists will better able crack the meaning of the mostly inscrutable genetic code now in their possession.
"Having the human genome completed represents a remarkable milestone, but it's written in a language we still don't understand very well," Collins said.
