Project to Map DNA of 1000 Plant Species

The government of Alberta, Canada, has launched the 1,000 Plants Initiative, an unprecedented, international project focused on "finding new genomic information that could lead to new medicines and a range of value-added plant products." The US $2 million project, which will be led by Gane Ka-Shu Wong, aims to map DNA of 1000 plant species.

“My work has focused on finding ways to bring speed and cost-saving to DNA sequencing and applying the data to enhance selective breeding of useful plant species,” said Wong. “Incredibly, only about 100 plant species DNA sequences have been analyzed in the proposed manner, so this project has real potential for new discoveries that can make nature work for us.” Doug Horner, Minister of Alberta Advanced Education and Technology, noted that the “project not only aims to improve human health and help the environment, but could also be the seed for a whole new bio-products industry in Alberta to diversify its agricultural sector.”

Several partners are supporting the initiative including the Alberta government, the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), Genome Alberta, the University of Alberta and international institutions including the Beijing Genomics Institute (China) and Musea Ventures (USA). All of the sequence data that the scientists will produce will be made available to the public through GenBank.

The press release is available at http://www.alberta.ca/home/NewsFrame.cfm?ReleaseID=/acn/200811/2475592E5F382-B4A5-7B90-D0E37ED2E1ACCB0C.html