The UK's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire revealed that it had decoded its two billionth chemical 'letter' of DNA last week. The researchers say that if two billion DNA letters (base-pairs) were scaled up to the size of a spiral staircase, they would stretch to the Moon. Almost half of this decoded DNA sequence (903 million base-pairs) is human, which made up a third of the raw data used in the international effort to decode the entire human genome. 'The work carried out here has forever changed the way science works' said Jane Rogers, head of sequencing at the Centre. 'Our understanding of organisms has been pushed forward light years'.
Since the Sanger Centre began reading, or sequencing long stretches of DNA ten years ago, its scientists have studied human, mouse, zebrafish, nematode worm and yeast genetic material, as well as that from several microbes. Francis Collins, director of the National Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, US said: 'This latest milestone for the Sanger Institute is another dramatic achievement by a talented and dedicated team of world-class sequencers', adding 'our hats are off to our colleagues'.
DNA molecules are made up of four different chemical base-pairs of DNA, called adenosine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). The two billionth letter to flash up on the Sanger Centre's scrolling display was a 'T' from mouse DNA, while the first was a 'G' from the nematode worm. Professor Allan Bradley, current director of the Institute, said that as well as sequencing a 'phenomenal amount' of material, the Centre's standards of accuracy were 'unsurpassed - far above internationally accepted measures'. Nobel prize-winner Sir John Sulston, the first director, said that the founding of the Centre was a risky gamble that became reality, thanks to its international collaborators and funders. 'Now the challenge for the world is to use these sequences wisely and equitably - for the advancement of knowledge and for the universal human good' he said.
Sources and References
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Cambridge completes 2bn-letter dictionary of DNA
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Sanger's celestial spiral staircase
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Decoded DNA would 'reach to Moon'
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