WASHINGTON,
Oct. 6, 2004- Agriculture Undersecretary Joseph J. Jen and
other leaders of the Bovine Genome Sequencing Project announced
today that the first draft of the bovine genome sequence
has been deposited into free public databases for use by
biomedical and agricultural researchers around the globe.
Contributors
to the $53 million international effort to sequence the
genome of the cow (Bos taurus) include: the National Human
Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which is part of the
National Institutes of Health; the USDA Cooperative State
Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) National
Research Initiative (NRI) competitive grants program; the
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS); the State of Texas;
Genome Canada; The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization of Australia; Agritech Investments
Ltd., Dairy Insight, Inc., and AgResearch Ltd., all of New
Zealand; and National, Texas, and South Dakota Beef Checkoff
Funds.
"Sequencing
the bovine genome is a major accomplishment in terms of
both the international collaboration that went into this
project as well as the impact this database will have on
the timing and scale of advances in human and agricultural
research," said Jen. "Partnerships and teamwork helped to
keep this project on track, and we will always be grateful
to those who dedicated so much time to this major breakthrough."
Sequencing
the bovine genome is expected to provide a number of benefits
to basic biology, which may be translated to more efficient
and profitable methods of meat and milk production for beef
and dairy producers. The bovine genome sequence will serve
as a tool for agricultural researchers striving to improve
health and disease management of cattle and enhance the
nutritional value of beef and dairy products. Identifying,
mapping, and understanding the function of genes in cattle
will make the nation's food supply safer by providing methods
for genetic tracking of animals and animal products, selecting
animals with reduced risk for disease, and decreasing the
use of antibiotics.
A
team led by Richard Gibbs, Ph.D., at Baylor College of Medicine's
Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston carried out the
sequencing and assembly of the genome. Additional work aimed
at uncovering more detailed information about individual
bovine genes - a process referred to as full-length cDNA
sequencing - is being conducted at the British Columbia
Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver.
The
initial assembly is based on 3.3-fold coverage of the bovine
genome. Researchers can access the sequence data through
the following public databases: GenBank (www.ncbi.nih.gov/Genbank)
at NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI);
EMBL Bank (www.ebi.ac.uk/embl/index.html)
at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's Nucleotide
Sequence Database; and the DNA Data Bank of Japan (www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp).
The data can also be viewed through NCBI's Map Viewer (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mapview/),
UCSC Genome Browser (www.genome.ucsc.edu/)
at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the Ensembl
Genome Browser (www.ensembl.org) at the Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute in Cambridge, England.
Researchers
are currently comparing the bovine genome sequence with
those of the human and other organisms that have already
been sequenced. The bovine genome is similar in size to
the genomes of humans and other mammals, containing approximately
3 billion DNA base pairs. The results of these analyses
will be published in the public databases in the next several
months.
Sequencing
of the bovine genome began in December 2003. The Hereford
breed of cattle was selected for the bulk of the sequencing
project. Sequencing at lighter coverage will be carried
out in additional cattle breeds, including the Holstein,
Angus, Jersey, Limousin, Norwegian Red and Brahman. The
completed Bovine Genome Sequencing Project will allow detailed
tracking of the DNA differences between these breeds to
assist discovery of traits for better meat and milk production
and to model human disease.
To
learn more about the rapidly expanding field of comparative
genomic analysis, go to: www.genome.gov/10005835.
To read the white paper that outlines the scientific rationale
and strategy for sequencing the bovine genome, go to: www.genome.gov/Pages/
Research/Sequencing/SeqProposals/BovineSEQ.pdf.
CSREES
advances knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human
health and well-being, and communities through national
program leadership and federal assistance. More information
about CSREES can be found at: www.csrees.usda.gov.
ARS is the in-house research arm of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. More information about ARS can be found
at: www.ars.usda.gov.
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