British And Irish project at forefront of global effort to map genomes of all life on Earth

The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a global effort to map the genomes of all plants, animals, fungi and other microbial life on Earth, is entering a new phase as it moves from pilot projects to full scale production sequencing. This new phase is marked with a collection of papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, describing the goals, achievements to date and future plans of the largest coordinated effort in the history of biology.

One contribution focuses on the Darwin Tree of Life project which aims to sequence genomes for around 70,000 species in Britain and Ireland. The Darwin project, is at the forefront of this global effort, having submitted over 200 complete reference genomes to public databases in its first two years.

Without action to curb climate change and protect the health of global ecosystems, Earth is forecast to lose 50 per cent of its biodiversity by the end of this century. Creating a digital library of DNA sequences for all known eukaryotic life can help generate effective tools for preventing biodiversity loss and pathogen spread, monitoring and protecting ecosystems, and enhancing ecosystem services.

The EBP was launched in 2018 to meet this need. It aims to provide a complete DNA sequence catalogue of 1.8 million species of plants, animals, fungi and protists, covering the vast majority of species identified to date worldwide.

The goal for phase 1 of EBP, which runs until 2023, is to produce reference genomes representing around 9,400 taxonomic families. So far, affiliated projects¹ have produced about 300 such reference genomes, with the majority of these coming from the Darwin Tree of Life project.

Professor Ian Barnes, Principal Investigator for the Darwin Tree of Life Project at the Natural History Museum, said: “For over a century, the Natural History Museum has collected species from across Britain and Ireland, and made those specimens available for visiting scientists and the public, to better understand the natural world. Now, with a team of universities, museums, botanic gardens and many other naturalists, we are using that expertise to find, identify and deliver specimens for genome sequencing, at a massive scale, for anyone in the world to work with.”

The first phase of DToL has been successful in laying the foundation to move from sequencing a handful of species to sequencing all species in Britain and Ireland. This has required close collaboration between diverse communities of researchers with expertise in biodiversity, sequencing, genomics, and analysis. The result is an end-to-end process that assures integrity, accuracy, and quality in the genomes produced, capable of scaling up to sequence many thousands more by 2030.

Professor Mark Blaxter, Director of the Tree of Life programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: “As climate change, globalization of trade, and the degradation of agricultural and natural habitats drive the sixth mass extinction, it has never been more important to catalogue and understand the biodiversity of our planet. Openly accessible understanding of species’ biology is a global good.”

Michelle Hart, from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: “Centuries of natural history research have created a uniquely rich knowledge base on the diversity and ecology of the plants, animal and fungi of Britain and Ireland. This is a perfect system for deploying massive scale genome sequencing of all species to give unprecedented and transformative insights into the nature of biodiversity and how it functions.”

With the groundwork done on EBP and affiliated projects, 2022 will see activity ramp up considerably. EBP expects 3,000 genomes to be sequenced in the year ahead, with DToL aiming to sequence and publish at least 2,000 reference genomes by the end of 2022.

Harris Lewin, chair of the EBP Working Group and Distinguished Professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis, said: “The special feature on the EBP captures the essence and excitement of the largest-scale coordinated effort in the history of biology. From fundamental science to breakthrough applications across a wide range of pressing global problems, such as preventing biodiversity loss and adapting food crops to climate change, the EBP’s progress in sequencing eukaryotic life is humbling and inspiring. Achieving the ultimate goal of sequencing all eukaryotic life now seems within our reach.” 

Notes to Editors:

¹ EBP functions as an international network of networks, coordinating numerous group-specific, regional and national-scale efforts, such as the California Conservation Genome Project (U.S.), Darwin Tree of Life (U.K.), the Vertebrate Genome Project and the 10,000 Bird Genomes Project.

As of December 2021, EBP includes 5,000 scientists and technical staff at 44 member institutions in 22 countries on every continent except Antarctica. There are 49 affiliated projects covering most of the major taxonomic groups of eukaryotes, representing access to tens of thousands of high-quality samples from museum collections and field biologists.

Natural History Media contact: Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5654 / 07799690151 Email: press@nhm.ac.uk

The Darwin Tree of Life consortium. (2022). Sequence locally, think globally: The Darwin Tree of Life Project is published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

Darwin Tree of Life project is funded by Wellcome.

The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most-visited natural history museum in Europe. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.

It is custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million specimens. The scale of this collection enables researchers from all over the world to document how species have and continue to respond to environmental changes - which is vital in helping predict what might happen in the future and informing future policies and plans to help the planet.

The Museum’s 300 scientists continue to represent one of the largest groups in the world studying and enabling research into every aspect of the natural world. Their science is contributing critical data to help the global fight to save the future of the planet from the major threats of climate change and biodiversity loss through to finding solutions such as the sustainable extraction of natural resources.

The Museum uses its enormous global reach and influence to meet its mission to create advocates for the planet - to inform, inspire and empower everyone to make a difference for nature. We welcome over five million visitors each year; our digital output reaches hundreds of thousands of people in over 200 countries each month and our touring exhibitions have been seen by around 30 million people in the last 10 years.

The Darwin Tree of Life Project

The Darwin Tree of Life Project is an ambitious programme to sequence, assemble and openly publish the genomes of over 70,000 species of animals, plants, fungi and protists in Britain and Ireland. The Project contributes to the global mission to sequence all life, the Earth Biogenome Project. The genomic data generated will revolutionise bioscience forever, facilitating research into evolution and biology, conservation of biodiversity, and the development of new biomaterials and pharmaceuticals.

The Project is being undertaken by a consortium of ten Partners: the Earlham Institute, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Marine Biological Association, Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. https://www.darwintreeoflife.org/

The Wellcome Sanger Institute
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a world leading genomics research centre. We undertake large-scale research that forms the foundations of knowledge in biology and medicine. We are open and collaborative; our data, results, tools and technologies are shared across the globe to advance science. Our ambition is vast – we take on projects that are not possible anywhere else. We use the power of genome sequencing to understand and harness the information in DNA. Funded by Wellcome, we have the freedom and support to push the boundaries of genomics. Our findings are used to improve health and to understand life on Earth. Find out more at www.sanger.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and on our Blog.

About Wellcome

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, global heating and infectious diseases. https://wellcome.org/