Links: CTV.ca and The Barcode of Life

A Canadian institute working to compile a database of DNA barcodes for every species on earth officially opened on Wednesday.
The $4.2 million The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, at Guelph University, is the fist of its kind in the world.
The barcode technology identifies species by analyzing short regions of their DNA instead of the whole genome.
"We are the world’s first barcode factory," said Dr. Paul Hebert, director of the institute and the first scientist to propose DNA barcoding.
This process, which uses a short DNA sequence on a common gene to differentiate between multi-cellular living things, makes it possible to identify species much quicker than before.
The barcoding technique has already led to the discovery of new bird, butterfly and fish species.
"Less than one-millionth of all the DNA is enough for us to tell what species an organism belongs to," Hebert explained.
With old technology, the institute would have been able to identify about 1,000 species a year.
Once the institute is completely up and running, it could categorize up to 500,000 samples annually.
Hebert said that this technique could allow scientists to identify an estimated 10 million species in the next 20 years. Only 1.2 million have been formally categorized in the past 250 years.
Once a species is identified, its barcode is uploaded to Barcode of Life Data Systems, an online database, where it can be accessed by other scientists.
Researchers can enter a DNA barcode on the site. If there’s match, the database can provide the corresponding species.
The institute has already described almost 28,000 species with barcodes, and they’re getting tissue samples from around the world sent to them for quick analysis.
Hebert said he’d ultimately like to see DNA barcoding put to practical use for things like pest management, food safety and environmental monitoring.

Again, from GenomeWeb, sequence of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) : Newly Sequenced Macaque Genome May Hint at Human Mental Disorders.

Researchers have sequenced the genome of the rhesus macaque, the third primate genome to be sequenced, the American Association for the Advancement of Science said today.
In findings detailed in a special issue of the Science dedicated to the macaque project, researchers said the rhesus macaque, also known as Macaca mulatta, is 97.5-percent similar to humans.
That makes it valuable both for its proximity to humans – for which researchers found a link to a mental disorder – and for its relative distance with the chimpanzee, which shares 99 percent of its genes with humans….

The sequence was generated in collaboration with the Michael Smith Genome Science Centre here in Vancouver.  The project site at Baylor is here, along with some of the other sequencing projects underway.  More information below the fold…

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Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute have located genes responsible for small size in dogs.  Humans have been modifying dogs for millennia through selective breeding for an array of traits, including the ability to crawl in small holes searching for vermin.  The researchers claim this will illuminate human disease linked to mutations affecting growth.  From  ENN:

So he began the Georgie project, studying the genes of the Portuguese
water dog, a breed that comes in a wide range of sizes from 25 pounds
to 75 pounds.

Ostrander and colleagues then extended that to a range of large
and small breeds and the researchers located a section of DNA that
varied between large and small breeds in most cases.

Known as a regulatory sequence, the difference is on dog
chromosome 15 next to a previously known gene named IGF1, for
insulin-like growth factor 1. The hormone controlled by the IGF1 gene
helps mammals — including people — grow from birth to adolescence.

In small dog breeds a mutation in the sequence next to the gene kept them from growing larger, the researchers said…

…Overall, 21 researchers studied 3,241 dogs from 143 breeds,
ranging from bichon frise, Chihuahua, Maltese, Pomeranian, toy poodle,
pug and Pekingese to Saint Bernard, Newfoundland, mastiff, Great Dane,
Irish wolfhound and standard poodle.

Dogs are descended from wolves, having been domesticated 12,000
to 15,000 years ago. Selective breeding has produced the many different
types of dogs that exist today.

Judging from ancient artwork, small breeds were developed quite early, Lark said.

A study of several hundred modern wolves didn’t find any with
the small-dog marker, he said, but it is possible there were small
wolves in ancient times.

"If you’re a primitive man you would adopt the small wolf, not
the big one," he said. And for a small wolf, life would have been
easier hanging around people looking for scraps than competing with
larger wolves in the wild.

I think we can assume this will lead to new and exciting breeds as well, like the Great Dachshund or Miniature Irish Wolfhound.

Today’s federal budget provides for $100 million investment this year in genomics and proteomics.  From the  Genome Canada website:

Budget 2007 provides Genome Canada with an additional $100 million in 2006–07 to sustain funding for the regional genome centres and related technology platforms, extend promising research projects and support Canada’s participation in strategic international research collaborations.

The government’s committments to the R&D economy are described here.