Plant sequencing project illustrates the benefits of an ERA
News of the successful sequencing of a small plant's genome on 13 December was celebrated in Brussels not only as a milestone in genetics, but also as a successful coup in cross border collaboration. Scientists around the world now have free access to the genome of this small weed, Arabidopsis thaliana, which is related to the cabbage and mustard plant families and more commonly known as 'Thale cress'. It wasn't chosen for study because of any commercial value but because it has a relatively small genome in comparison to other flowering plants, which would require enormous resources to decode. Instead, researchers from the USA, Japan and Europe were able to divide up and study A. thaliana's five chromosomes in relatively short sections. Without such international collaboration, they agree, the groundbreaking project would never have been completed in just ten years. Commission officials are pleased with the result, not only because the Research Directorate-General has been involved in funding the project since 1991, but also because the Arabidopsis sequencing project fits into the political ideology of a European Research Area (ERA), aimed to promote large scale strategic projects. Its success provides an excellent illustration of the benefits of international collaboration on large scale, long term and socially important research projects - exactly as proposed by Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin in his communication on an ERA earlier this year. Announcing the project's success to a packed press room in Brussels, Research Director-General Achilleas Mitsos, expanded on the importance of collaborating on similar projects. 'These research activities of the EU aim to bridge the gap and bring closer together the differences between science and society,' he said. 'This is of major importance for the future.' Now that scientists have a 'map' of the exact location of each gene along A. thaliana's DNA, they need to determine what proteins each of these genes can make. This will have huge implications for biotechnology as the basic complement of the genes present in all plants are present in Arabidopsis. The results of this work may change the face of agriculture, with potentially huge consequences: 'The knowledge now available is likely to be of similar value to people as the sequence of all human genes, because everyone will benefit directly from the improvements in food supplies that will follow from a deeper understanding of plants,' says Mike Bevan, one of the European project coordinators from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. In the USA, a new ten year project to determine gene function in the plant is already underway, dubbed 'Arabidopsis in 2010'. At the European Community level, funding decisions cannot be made for such a long term. But there are a number of Commission officials who want to see research in this area continue under the next round of EU RTD funding, which will run from 2002 to 2006. 'I will use the all the influence I can to convince [the European] Parliament that it is important to continue research in this area so we can understand what we need,' Bruno Hansen, Director of the Commission's Life Sciences programme told CORDIS News. 'We have to make sure we foster the knowledge base in this domain.'