NHGRI's process for selecting sequencing targets begins with two working groups comprised of experts from across the research community. Each of the working groups is responsible for developing a proposal for a set of genomes to sequence that would advance knowledge in one of two important scientific areas: understanding the human genome and understanding the evolutionary biology of genomes. A coordinating committee then reviews the working groups' proposals, helping to fine-tune the suggestions and integrate them into an overarching set of scientific priorities. The recommendations of the coordinating committee are then reviewed and approved by NHGRI's advisory council, which in turn forwards its recommendations regarding sequencing strategy to NHGRI leadership.
The genomes of a number of organisms have been or are being sequenced by the large-scale sequencing capacity developed by the Human Genome Project. These include the dog, the mouse, the rat, the chicken, the honey bee, ten fruit flies, the sea urchin, two puffer fish, two sea squirts, two roundworms, over a dozen fungi, baker's yeast and the bacterium Escherichia coli. Organisms currently in the NHGRI sequencing pipeline include: the macaque, the orangutan, the cow, the platypus, the red flour beetle, several additional species of fungi and the domestic cat. A complete list of organisms and their sequencing status can be viewed at www.genome.gov/10002154.
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Contact: Geoff Spencer
spencerg@mail.nih.gov
301-402-0911
NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
8-Jun-2005