An ambitious project was launched last week to collect the genomes of the planet’s major plant groups within the next two years and put them into deep freeze.
The project is part of the Global Genome Initiative, which aims to gather and preserve the DNA of all life on Earth in cryo-storage facilities.
The task sounds daunting, but scientists leading the initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History say it will only take a few months to gather samples from half the world’s plant families because they’re already growing in botanic gardens. Most can be found within a five-mile (8-km) radius of Washington, DC.
A growing international network of cryo-storage facilities is taking part in the Global Genome Initiative. There are 25 so far on every continent except Antarctica. The tanks containing the world’s largest natural history genome collection are operated by the Smithsonian at a centre in Maryland. It’s capable of holding more than four million samples.
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Jonathan Coddington, director of the Global Genome Initiative, says genomes are vital to understanding zoonotic diseases, identifying new species and advancing medicine. One in four prescription drugs already contains materials isolated from plants.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Scientists rush to freeze plant DNA before ‘sixth mass extinction’
