Biodiversity is increasingly threatened by human activities, both directly and indirectly including global warming and climate change, which ultimately imperils the ecosystems, biodiversity, global food supply and other biological resources upon which we depend. Therefore, understanding and preserving species and ecosystems are essential global imperatives for human survival and prosperity. Each organism on Earth has a unique "blueprint" encoded in its genom, the total amount of DNA, which contains all the information the organism needs to survive, interact with its environment, and reproduce. Knowing and understanding the complete DNA sequence of all species on Earth will not only provide fundamental new insights into biology and biodiversity, but will also transform our ability to tailor conservation efforts. Moreover, it will offer a comprehensive view of nature's toolkit for future biotechnology, enabling us to develop new sources of food, medical treatments, drugs, vaccines, biofuels, and biomaterials.
The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) is a global non-profit initiative that aims to sequence and catalogue the genomes of all 1.5 million currently described eukaryotic species over a ten-year period. EBP-Nor represents the first phase of Norway’s involvement in the EBP. In this initial phase, we aim to establish collaboration between various Norwegian institutions, with shared tasks, protocols for sampling, sequencing, analysis, and data storage, making information available within the national consortium. This consortium includes the major universities in Norway (UiO, NMBU, UiB, NTNU, Uni Nord, and UiT), the research institute SINTEF, and non-academic institutions such as REV Ocean, the Life Science Cluster, and ArcticZymes Technologies.
During this phase, we will sample and produce high-quality reference genomes for a limited number (100-150) of carefully selected species as a proof of concept and to establish robust protocols. The ultimate long-term goal is to obtain complete genomes for all eukaryotic species in Norway. Until now, we have sequenced more than 100 species either being assembled and annotated, or in the process of annotation. An additional 50 species have been collected and will be processed for finalised genomes within the end of the project. In sum, we have established the needed infrastructure and shown that such a large genome project can be carried out in Norway.
Biodiversity is increasingly threatened by human-related activities, directly and indirectly, which ultimately imperils both the global food supply and other biological resources that we depend upon. Therefore, understanding and preserving species and ecosystems are global imperatives for human survival and prosperity. Each organism and species on the planet has a unique "blueprint" encoded by its genome, i.e. its total DNA, which contains all the information that the species needs to survive, interact with its environment and reproduce. Knowing and understanding the complete DNA sequence of all species of life on Earth will not only provide fundamental new insights into biology, understanding biodiversity and transform our ability to tailor conservation of life, but also deliver a comprehensive view of nature’s toolkit for future biotechnology to provide humanity with food, medical treatment, drugs, vaccines, biofuels and biomaterials.
The Earth BioGenome Project is a global non-profit initiative that aims to sequence and catalogue the genomes of all of Earth's 1.5 million currently described eukaryotic species over a period of ten years. EBP-Nor is the Norwegian initiative of EBP, and a partnership of the major universities in Norway (UiO, NMBU, UiB, NTNU, Uni Nord and UiT), the research institute SINTEF, and the non-academic institutions REVOcean, the Life Science Cluster, the Norwegian Environment Agency, and ArcticZymes Technologies. Together we will sequence and catalogue all eukaryotic species occurring in Norway, estimated to 45,000 species.
