Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life · SciRah

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Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life

Harris A. Lewin^{a b c d}, Gene E. Robinson^e, W. John Kress^f, William J. Baker^g, Jonathan A. Coddington^f, Keith A. Crandall^h, Richard Michael Durbin^{i j}, Scott V. Edwards^{k l}, Félix Forest^g, Marcus Thomas P. Gilbert^{m n}, Melissa M. Goldstein^o,

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences2018-04-23 974 citations41 references

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Abstract

Increasing our understanding of Earth's biodiversity and responsibly stewarding its resources are among the most crucial scientific and social challenges of the new millennium. These challenges require fundamental new knowledge of the organization, evolution, functions, and interactions among millions of the planet's organisms. Herein, we present a perspective on the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a moonshot for biology that aims to sequence, catalog, and characterize the genomes of all of Earth's eukaryotic biodiversity over a period of 10 years. The outcomes of the EBP will inform a broad range of major issues facing humanity, such as the impact of climate change on biodiversity, the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems, and the preservation and enhancement of ecosystem services. We describe hurdles that the project faces, including data-sharing policies that ensure a permanent, freely available resource for future scientific discovery while respecting access and benefit sharing guidelines of the Nagoya Protocol. We also describe scientific and organizational challenges in executing such an ambitious project, and the structure proposed to achieve the project's goals. The far-reaching potential benefits of creating an open digital repository of genomic information for life on Earth can be realized only by a coordinated international effort.

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^aDepartment of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
^bDepartment of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
^cThe John Muir Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
^dThe University of California, Davis Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
^eCarl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Department of Entomology, and Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
^fNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013
^gRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AE, United Kingdom
^hComputational Biology Institute, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052
ⁱDepartment of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
^jWellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
^kDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
^lMuseum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
^mNatural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
ⁿUniversity Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
^oDepartment of Health Policy and Management, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052
^pDepartment of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
^qUS Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA 94598
^rAgricultural Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705
^sHoward Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
^tUC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
^uLaboratory of Neurogenetics of Language, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065
^vConservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Front Royal, VA 22630
^wNovim Group, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
^xHuman Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030
^ySpace Time Ventures, São Paulo, SP, 05449-050, Brazil
^zWorld Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Environment and Natural Resource Security, Cologny/Geneva CH-1223, Switzerland
^aaDepartmento de Botanica, Instituto de Biociencia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil
^abSão Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), SP 05468-901, Brazil
^acFlorida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611
^adChina National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, 518083 Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
^aeBGI-Shenzhen, 518083 Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
^afSection for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
^agState Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 650223 Kunming, China