National

China emerges leader in genome sequencing

By N. Gopal Raj

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM APRIL 7. With the recent announcement in the journal Science that the genome of a rice variety has been sequenced, the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) has emerged as one of the leading centres in the world for genome sequencing. Science, which profiled BGI in its rice genome issue, admiringly called it a "sequencing superpower.''

The backing which the BGI received is symbolic of China's vision for using biotechnology. The country has announced plans to raise its plant biotechnology research by 400 per cent before 2005. It would then account for nearly one-third of the world's public plant biotechnology spending.

By contrast, India's real investments in modern plant biotechnology would not be more than 10 per cent of the Chinese investment, according to G. Padmanabhan, former director, Indian Institute of Science, writing in Current Science.

At the initiative of a group of overseas Chinese scientists, the BGI started as a private, non-profit research organisation in 1999. It bought its first batch of sequencing machine on an instalment basis and trained its staff on the genome of a bacterium found in hot springs.

Subsequently, along with two Chinese National Human Genome Centers at Beijing and Shanghai, the BGI was part of the Chinese group which participated in the international human genome sequencing consortium. Although China sequenced only one per cent of the human genome, it was the only developing country which contributed to the international effort.

China has not only sequenced the genomes of two varieties of rice on its own, but is also contributing to the international rice genome project for producing a high-quality, complete sequence. While India's contribution to the international project is part of one chromosome, covering 2.5 million bases (four different bases form the genetic code for all life), China is sequencing a whole chromosome more than 26 million bases long.

There are only a handful of high-throughput automated sequencing machines in India. The BGI alone has 92 of the latest machines. The sequencing information from these machines is processed and assembled by four of the fastest supercomputers made in China itself. India has no comparable capability.

The BGI is working with the Danish to sequence the pig genome. The Chinese are also sequencing two other varieties of rice as the genomes of corn and the chicken. All these are staples of the Chinese diet. It would take an investment of Rs. 1,000 crores if India wants to sequence a rice genome variety like Basmati on its own, Akhilesh Tyagi, coordinator of the Indian initiative on rice genome sequencing, told The Hindu.

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