African BioGenome Project Sets Out Goals and Roadmap

The African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) has published a position paper in Nature highlighting the goals, priorities, and roadmap of the Africa-led effort to sequence the genomes of 105,000 species of plants, animals, fungi and protists that are endemic to the continent.

Following its pilot launch in June 2021, AfricaBP now hosts 109 African scientists and 22 African organizations, representing researchers and organizations from all five regions in the African Union. AfricaBP is a partner to three complementary large-scale global genomic efforts, the 10,000 Plants Genomes Project (10KP), the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP), and the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP).

“The launch of the African BioGenome project represents a significant advance for the Earth BioGenome Project, which aims to sequence all 1.8 million named eukaryotic species,” said Harris Lewin, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis and Chair of the Earth BioGenome Project Working Group. “Africa’s importance to efforts in conservation of endangered species, pandemic prevention, and sustainable agriculture will be greatly enhanced by the coordinated efforts in genome sequencing across the African continent.”

Read the full article by Andy Fell on Egghead.