The CAS Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) and the Danish Committee
of Pig Breeding and Production (DCPBP) jointly announce the public
release of pig genomic sequences. The released sequence data include
3.84 million pieces of the genomes of five different domestic pig
breeds from Europe and China. The data are generated from the first
large scale pig genome sequencing effort, the Sino-Danish Pig Genome
Project, started in 2001 on the basis of a long standing collaboration
of scientists and research institutions from China and Denmark.
An open access research article from the Sino-Danish Pig Genome
Project can be found at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-
2164/6/70 and the genome sequence data are immediately accessible
from the NCBI Trace Repository (Center name: "SDJVP"; Project name:
"Sino-Danish Pig Genome Project") and GenBank, a public DNA sequence
database of the US National Institutes of Health.
In addition to the genome survey, 100 libraries of expressed
sequences from different pig tissues and developmental stages have
been analyzed. These sequences will be released in the near future
together with a publication on pig gene expression.
This far, the pig sequence data have been obtained thanks to an
investment of app. 10 million US$ by CAS and DCPBP together with the
Ministry of Science and Technology and the Natural Science Foundation
of China.
The research indicates that pig is genetically closer to man than
normally used laboratory animals. This has important implications for
the use of pigs in medical research and drug testing. Thus, the
availability of the pig sequence data will allow other public and
private researchers to identify many important aspects relating to
biomedical research as well as to production, food safety and animal
health traits that will greatly benefit health care, industry and
consumers.
The Sino-Danish Pig Genome Project has been one of the best examples
of international scientific collaboration, which puts its emphasis on
issues of wider importance. The endeavour will be incorporated into the
next stage of the pig genome project in which a draft sequence map of 6
fold genome coverage will be produced. This effort will be coordinated
by the international Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium (SGSC) led by
scientists from USA and UK. A simultaneous announcement will also be made
by SGSC and the Alliance for Animal Genome Research (AAGR) in support of
this public release.
DCTBP represents the world leading Danish pig breeders and global
exporters of pig products. Denmark, with a population of only 5.4 million
people, produces app. 25 million pigs per year.
BGI is a leading genomics research institution in the promotion of
genomics in agricultural research. In the past 5 years, in addition to
its contribution to the international Human Genome and HapMap Projects,
BGI has sequenced the genomes of rice, chicken, silkworm, and many
microorganisms of importance for agriculture, environment, and infectious
diseases. BGI will continue its efforts in pig genome research through
its support to and participation in SGSC. (Contact: Bin Liu, PhD,
liub@genomics.org.cn, CAS Beijing Genomics Institute)
