Table of Contents
EARTH BIO GENOME PROJECT
• An international consortium of scientists is proposing a massive project to sequence, catalog and analyze the genomes of all known Eukaryota species on the planet, an undertaking
the researchers say will take 10 years, cost $4.7 billion and require more than 200 petabytes of digital storage capacity.
• Require the cooperation of governments, scientists, citizen scientists and students from around the globe.
NOTES
•The Human Genome Project “involved a workforce of more than 47,000 people generating nearly $1 trillion in economic activity,”.
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• Scientists have proposed Earth Bio Genome project, a massive project to sequence, catalog and analyze the genomes of all Eukaryota species on the planet.
EUKARYOTA
• Eukaryotas include all organisms except bacteria and archaea. It includes plants, animals, fungi and other organisms whose cells have a nucleus that houses their chromosomal DNA. There are an estimated 10-15 million Eukaryota species on Earth.
• Grass, potatoes, and pine trees are all Eukaryotas, as are algae, mushrooms, and tapeworms. And, of course, moles, fruit flies, and you are also examples of Eukaryotas.
PROKARYOTIC
• A prokaryotic is a unicellular organism that lacks a membrane bound nucleus, mitochondria, or any other membrane-bound organelle
• The first living organisms are thought to have been prokaryotic.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
• The central goal of the Earth Bio Genome Project (EBP) is to understand the evolution and organization of life on our planet by sequencing and functionally annotating the genomes of 1.5 million known species of Eukaryotas.
• The project also seeks to reveal some of the estimated 10 to 15 million unknown species of Eukaryotas, most of which are single cell organisms, insects and small animals in the oceans.
• The Project also plans to capitalize on the “citizen scientist” movement to collect specimens.
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• The initiative is led by a coordinating council with members from the United States, the European Union, China, Brazil, Canada, Australia and some African countries.
• This will take 10 years, cost $4.7 billion and require more than 200 petabytes of digital storage capacity.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• The benefits of the project promise to be a complete transformation of the scientific understanding of life on Earth and a vital new resource for global innovations in medicine, agriculture, conservation, technology and genomics.
• The project is also being seen essential for developing new drugs for infectious and inherited diseases as well as creating new biological synthetic fuels, bio materials, and food sources for growing human population.
• The project will likely enable the development of new technologies, such as portable genetic sequencers and instrumented drones that can go out, identify samples in the field, and bring those samples back to the laboratory.
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