The Earth BioGenome Project Phase II: illuminating the eukaryotic tree of life

The ongoing success of Phase I of the Earth Biogenome Project (EBP) demonstrates the feasibility of producing reference-quality genomes at scale, enabling the project to achieve its overarching goal: to sequence 1.67 million eukaryotic species in 10 years.Using knowledge from Phase I projects, we propose a revised strategy for Phase II: collecting specimens for 300,000 species and sequencing 150,000 species, representing at least half of the eukaryotic genera, in 4 years.Technical advances in DNA sequencing, genome assembly, and genome annotation have reduced costs and increased throughput to the point that we envisage globally distributed production of reference-quality genomes for most eukaryotic species for a total cost of about US$3.9 billion-US$800 million less than initially envisioned.Key challenges remain, including enhancing global coordination and building communities of users and interested parties; creating an inclusive, global biodiversity genomics workforce; developing effective access and benefit-sharing methodologies; facilitating collection at scale of vouchered specimens; sequencing reference genomes from single-celled and very small organisms; enhancing functional annotation; and building large-scale toolkits for comparative genomics.Technological and operational innovations, such as a "sequencing lab in a box," have the potential to radically transform the global capacity for biodiversity genome sequencing, facilitating national benefit-sharing agreements and the realization of societal impacts on Indigenous peoples and local communities.We propose the establishment of a US$0.5 billion Foundational Impact Project (FIF) fund to support the immediate use of the genome sequences in conservation, agriculture, biodiversity monitoring, biotechnology, and basic sciences, focused on supporting initiatives in the Global South.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Science
Published
2025-09-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsci.2025.1514835
Citations
13
Primary Topic
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
22.31

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article

The Earth BioGenome Project Phase II: illuminating the eukaryotic tree of life

Kerstin Lindblad‐Toh, Harris A. Lewin, Ann M. Mc Cartney, Giulio Formenti et al.
13 citations
Frontiers in Science
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
22.31
article

The Earth BioGenome Project Phase II: illuminating the eukaryotic tree of life

Kerstin Lindblad‐Toh, Harris A. Lewin, Ann M. Mc Cartney, Giulio Formenti, Katharina J. Hoff, Erich D. Jarvis, Tandy Warnow, Federica Di-Palma, Nico M. Franz, Oliver A. Ryder, Françoise Thibaud‐Nissen, Michael Hiller, Debra Mathews, Kerstin Howe, Lesley Shirley, Peter W. Harrison, Manuela da Silva, Richard Challis, Sadye Paez, Robert Michael Waterhouse, Roderic Guigó, Kim D. Pruitt, Camila J. Mazzoni, Nicola Mulder, Richard M. Durbin, Fergal J. Martin, Mara Lawniczak, Verena Ras, Mark Blaxter
article en
13 citations

Abstract

The ongoing success of Phase I of the Earth Biogenome Project (EBP) demonstrates the feasibility of producing reference-quality genomes at scale, enabling the project to achieve its overarching goal: to sequence 1.67 million eukaryotic species in 10 years.Using knowledge from Phase I projects, we propose a revised strategy for Phase II: collecting specimens for 300,000 species and sequencing 150,000 species, representing at least half of the eukaryotic genera, in 4 years.Technical advances in DNA sequencing, genome assembly, and genome annotation have reduced costs and increased throughput to the point that we envisage globally distributed production of reference-quality genomes for most eukaryotic species for a total cost of about US$3.9 billion-US$800 million less than initially envisioned.Key challenges remain, including enhancing global coordination and building communities of users and interested parties; creating an inclusive, global biodiversity genomics workforce; developing effective access and benefit-sharing methodologies; facilitating collection at scale of vouchered specimens; sequencing reference genomes from single-celled and very small organisms; enhancing functional annotation; and building large-scale toolkits for comparative genomics.Technological and operational innovations, such as a "sequencing lab in a box," have the potential to radically transform the global capacity for biodiversity genome sequencing, facilitating national benefit-sharing agreements and the realization of societal impacts on Indigenous peoples and local communities.We propose the establishment of a US$0.5 billion Foundational Impact Project (FIF) fund to support the immediate use of the genome sequences in conservation, agriculture, biodiversity monitoring, biotechnology, and basic sciences, focused on supporting initiatives in the Global South.

Frontiers in ScienceVol. 3
Broad Institute (US), University of East Anglia (GB), Goethe University Frankfurt (DE), Uppsala University (SE), SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH), European Bioinformatics Institute (GB), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), University of Cape Town (ZA), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), University of San Diego (US), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), University of Cambridge (GB), Johns Hopkins Medicine (US), Science for Life Laboratory (SE), Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB), Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M (DE), University of California San Diego (US), Universität Greifswald (DE), Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (US), National Center for Biotechnology Information (US), Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research (DE), LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (DE), Genome British Columbia (CA), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (ES), Centre for Genomic Regulation (ES), San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (US), Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (DE), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (BR), Arizona State University (US), Rockefeller University (US), University of California, Davis (US), University of the Western Cape (ZA), University of Lausanne (CH)
National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Ambrose Monell Foundation, Arizona State University, Wellcome Trust, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, UK Research and Innovation, Genome British Columbia, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, National Institutes of Health, University of California, Davis, HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme, Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation, U.S. National Library of Medicine
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
22.31
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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