Roo genome project inches closer to reality

The kangaroo genome project has moved slightly closer to reality with the announcement that the Australian Research Council will fund a new Centre for the Kangaroo Genome, worth AUD$2.6 million over the next five years.

The centre, headed by Prof Jenny Graves at the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University, Prof Marilyn Renfree at the University of Melbourne and Prof Des Cooper at Macquarie University, will initially focus on creating a detailed genetic map of the Tammar Wallaby genome, chosen as the initial Australian kangaroo species for genomic research due to its role in marsupial research to date.

"All genomes start with a map," said Graves. The scientists plan to home in interesting regions to fill in even more detail, initially focusing on the X chromosome. And they'll be using an interesting approach, using specific chromosome fragments to create smaller BAC libraries that can later be collated.

But Graves is also continuing to lobby the US National Institutes of Health for inclusion of the kangaroo among the genomes sequenced under the auspices of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). She flies to Boston soon to argue her case.

"To sequence the entire genome will take US$50 million. We don't have those resources in Australia so we are trying to persuade the NOH to take the Tammar wallaby as the marsupial genome to sequence," Graves said. The opposition is an opossum species from South America, but Graves believes the Australian species offers more, with 40 years of research behind it.

"The US can't match the amount of work Australia has done in the last 40 years in this area," she said.

Collins a fan

And it seems that many internationally prominent geneticists are already on side with an Australian marsupial project, with NHGRI director Francis Collins and expat Australian Richard Gibbs indicating support during the XIX International Congress of Genetics.

"Certainly Australia would need to be heavily involved in the selection of the animal to be used," Francis Collins told Australian Biotechnology News earlier this week.

Aiding the project will be the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF), which will undertake much of the mapping and initial sequencing. While director Sue Forrest says the AGRF has not got the infrastructure to carry out an entire genome sequencing of this magnitude, she believes that they could carry out sequencing of two or three chromosomes.

"The main thing we'll be looking for will be for funding to support doing some of the project," she said. "We want to offer a sensible chunk to funding agencies."

And Walter and Eliza Hall Institute bioinformatician Prof Terry Speed will also contribute, bringing his expertise in making sense of genomes and comparisons to the project.

While the current project is expected to take up to five years, depending on future funding opportunities, Speed estimated that using the high level resources of the USA would bring the time required to obtain a full sequence down to one to two years.

If the US knocks back Australia's national icon as a sequencing project, well, Graves says, we'll just have to do it ourselves.