Readers Digest
Magazine subscription Podcast
HomeInspireLife

The Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life and informing our future

BY Promoted Content

17th Dec 2021 Life

The Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life and informing our future
According to the WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020, it is estimated that natural biodiversity fell by 68 percent on average between 1970 and 2016.
For the 56 percent of us who now inhabit urban areas, the natural world may seem distant and unconnected from our everyday lives. The truth is our existence relies on symbiosis with nature. Nearly half of the world’s population is directly reliant on natural resources for their livelihoods. The continued degradation of our ecosystem can only have negative consequences for humanity. Stopping and reversing this trend will not only take multilateral political action of the kind seen at COP26, but it will also require international scientific cooperation far beyond anything we have attempted.
68 percent of Earth’s biodiversity disappeared between 1970 and 2016.  BGI Group is playing a leading role in the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), an international effort to digitally catalogue all eukaryotic life on the planet, in order to safeguard the natural world for future generations.
"68 percent of Earth’s biodiversity disappeared between 1970 and 2016"
Humanity has long sought to catalogue the world around it. The Linnaean System established a naming convention for living things. Dr. Samuel Johnson’s dictionary attempted to systematise written English. The international effort which led to the publication of the human genome in 2003 sought to establish the language of human life.

The story behind the Earth BioGenome Project?

GettyImages-1143571807
Unlike the 20th century’s other great explorative project, the space race, the Human Genome Project (HGP) was a multilateral collaborative effort. Centres of research excellence across the US, UK, China, France, Japan, and Germany pooled their resources – with each member chosen on the basis of capacity rather than ideology. In that sense, the HGP perfectly encapsulated the ability of science to bring people together – fitting, given the project aimed to uplift our understanding of humanity. Nevertheless, the HGP was inherently solipsistic. Earth is not inhabited by humans alone, we share it.
Now, an even more ambitious and essential genomic project has begun.

What is the Earth BioGenome Project?

GettyImages-1411026428
The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) is, in the words of its founders, “a moon-shot for biology that aims to sequence, catalogue, and characterise the genomes of all of Earth’s eukaryotic biodiversity over a period of 10 years.” Like the HGP before it, the EBP is a truly international effort, with research taking place in Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. Many of the organisations previously involved in the HGP will once again play major roles in the EBP including the Wellcome Sanger Institute, BGI Group, and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
Commenting on the project, Liu Huan, Chief Scientist of Biodiversity at BGI-Research, and Head of BGI-Research's Institute of Digital Earth BioGenome stated: “BGI Group was founded in 1999 in order to participate in the HGP. Just over 20 years later, we are once again joining with partners from around the world in order to expand our collective understanding of life on Earth. We are proud of the essential contributions we had made to the HGP and see our involvement in the EBP as a continuation of our mission to better understand the building blocks of life for the benefit of humankind. Since our establishment, we have investigated the frontiers of genetic science and its applications beyond the human race, sequencing everything from rice to silkworms, the domestic chicken to the giant panda.”

What work is the BGI Group doing?

BGI Group’s Institute of Digital Earth is lending its expertise and leadership to a number of diverse EBP projects including the 10,000 Birds Genomics Alliance (B10K), 10,000 Plant Genome Project (10KP), and the 10,000 Fish Genomics Project (Fish10K). These projects will be essential components in this new, foundational attempt to catalogue life on Earth.
Projects like the EBP and previously completed HGP absolutely depend on seamless collaboration across borders. Structured as partnerships between leading research institutes, they require funding and political support over many years. It is only when scientists work together that real progress can be made.
"It is only when scientists work together that real progress can be made"
According to Dr. Francis S Collins, Director of the US National Institutes of Health and former leader of the US Human Genome Project effort, “The First Law of Technology states that truly transformational technology will have its immediate consequences overestimated and its long-term consequences underestimated.” We cannot know for certain what the immediate benefits of the EBP will be once it is completed in 2028. Good science deals with probabilities, not certainties. Nonetheless, it is extremely likely that a better understanding of Earth’s biodiversity will aid us in better conserving the species and ecosystems that are so important to our survival.

Understanding the world around us

Projects like the HGP and the EBP speak to our need as a species to understand the world around us. They encourage cross-border collaboration, investment and perhaps most importantly, they inspire future generations of scientists and enable us to better protect the natural world. The EBP is a fundamental science project. At its core, it aims to promote the preservation, protection, and restoration of the astounding biological diversity of planet earth. Practical applications of discoveries stemming from the project will range from agricultural products to medicines to practical means of preserving our ecosystem.  
The natural world, our world, is currently facing several grave and complex threats from human activity. Despite these challenges, it is within our power as a species to chart a new course. The HGP codified a new model for international scientific cooperation. The EBP will be our next step in our joint quest to comprehend and preserve our world for future generations.
Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.

This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. Read our disclaimer

Loading up next...
Stories by email|Subscription
Readers Digest

Launched in 1922, Reader's Digest has built 100 years of trust with a loyal audience and has become the largest circulating magazine in the world

Readers Digest
Reader’s Digest is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK’s magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors’ Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards, please contact 0203 289 0940. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors’ Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit ipso.co.uk