First results from Skippy’s DNA analysis

Friday 25 February 2005
Embargo and media briefing 9.30 am (breakfast from 8.45 am)
Level 7, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Vic

§ Beta sp of wallabies available

§ Lessons for human lung development

§ Brockhoff Foundation backs project

§ US effort starting soon

The multi-million dollar international initiative to read the genetic code of the Tammar wallaby has reached its first milestone with the release of the first gene code sequences at a briefing in Melbourne this morning.

One of the first genes in the sequences released today codes for NADH dehydrogenase – an enzyme essential for life in everything from bacteria, to kangaroos, to humans. It’s one of the components of the powerhouses of our cells - mitochondria.

“Our work has shown that this gene is 68 % similar between humans and wallabies,” says Sue Forrest, leader of the Wallaby Genome Project and Director of the Australian Genome Research Facility. “It’s these similarities that make the wallaby code valuable for human biology,” she says. “Any genes which are similar after more than 100 million years of separation are likely to be important.”

Australian researchers are eagerly awaiting the full genome,” says Marilyn Renfree, leader of the University of Melbourne’s marsupial research team.

“Our team has already learnt much about mammalian reproduction, development and genetics from the Tammar wallaby. In many cases marsupial genes are closer to humans than are the equivalent mouse genes.”

Renfree and her colleagues have already secured on-going funding from ARC and NHMRC to support research on marsupial biology, and this week they were shortlisted for an ARC Centre of Excellence in Mammalian Genomics and Sex in conjunction with ANU and UNSW.

“Australian researchers will be well placed to harness the genome information to speed up our understanding of human and marsupial evolution, help us conserve Australia’s unique marsupials, and develop unique biomedical research applications.”

“The wallaby genome may provide insight into human lung development,” says Jane Whitley, a researcher from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries. “A one day old joey weighs less than half a gram. It’s roughly the equivalent of a 40 day old human embryo. But even with immature lungs it can breathe unassisted. We can learn from this,” says Whitley, who recently obtained unique 3D images of the lung development of joeys using a Japanese synchrotron.

Half the sequencing of the wallaby genome is to be conducted in the US at the Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston with the support of the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the US National Institutes of Health.

“This project is an important contribution for understanding the tree of life - and for advancing collaborative research between the United States of America and Australia. The magnitude of the contribution of the National Human Genome Research Institute indicates strong confidence in the ability of the Australian groups to generate these important data,” says Melburnian Richard Gibbs who is heading up the US half of the project

Announcing a $50,000 contribution to the project from the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, James Guest, Chairman of the Foundation, says, “This project appealed to us because of its potential to benefit the community in a variety of ways,” says James Guest, Chairman of the Foundation

Beta sp (16:9) footage and stills are available of wallabies, joeys, 3D lung images and lab work. Sequencing robots and researchers are available for filming.

Further details – Niall Byrne 03 5253 1391, niall@scienceinpublic.com, background information and images available online at www.scienceinpublic.com.

For interview and comment contact Sue Forrest on (03) 9345-2449 or (0407) 864095.

Background information

Why is the wallaby genome important?

The marsupial genome offers insights into the genetic programming of all mammals – including humans. Because they are such distant relatives in the mammalian family tree, they are sufficiently different from us to make useful comparisons which may point the way to how we evolved.

When you find a gene in humans and kangaroos that has hardly changed in 180 million years of evolution you know you are onto something important to human development.

The wallaby genome initiative offers us the opportunity to exploit a unique natural experiment. Wallabies and kangaroos show extraordinary adaptability to environmental challenges. They have unique features of lactation and reproduction that should be exploited for economic benefit in the dairy industry, in livestock fertility and in the better understanding and management of human fertility and infertility

An understanding of kangaroo lactation offers the prospect of adding value to milk and milk products through genetic selection.

§ help us understand and manipulate sex determination and other aspects of fertility valuable to the livestock industries.

Benefits to Victoria

Victoria has the intellectual base to quickly harvest the genomic information that will flow from the kangaroo genome initiative through

§ The University of Melbourne’s Reproduction and Development research group led by Marilyn Renfree

§ gives Victoria the best opportunity to harness the genomics information for commercial and community benefit

§ demonstrates to expatriates that Victoria can be taken seriously as a player in big science/genomics.

The analysis of all the information will require massive computing power – and will also be largely done in Melbourne – giving Victorian researchers the best chance to exploit the information for the benefit of our community, agriculture, business and for kangaroos.

The critical mass of a flagship genomics initiative will create the skills and resources to tackle other economically beneficial genomes including eucalypts,crops, livestock, pests and diseases.

Why do genomes matter?

Genetic information is to biology what reactors, synchrotrons and particle accelerators are to physics – basic infrastructure that is informing the creation of new medicines, new crops, and is transforming biological and agricultural research.

Australia has unique biodiversity and dominance in key areas of agricultural biotechnology. There is a window of opportunity for us to nurture these assets and build up our knowledge economy. That is why leading genomics researchers have called for a national effort to read the genetic code of plants and animals essential to Australia’s long term economic and environmental development.

Two years ago the human genome was published – the 3 billion letters that encode humanity. It was a global effort that cost over $3 billion but which has accelerated the genetics revolution that started in Oxford in 1953 when Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA.

Across the world the race is now on to determine what the code means. And the genetic codes of the cow, sheep, wheat, rice and many other plants and animals are now being read. The results will

§ help us decode the human genome and develop a new generation of personalised medicines for every illness – including cancer, heart disease and mental illness

allow us to dramatically improve agricultural production - creating breeds and strains suited to their environment – with disease resistance, requiring less chemicals, making better use of water, creating healthier products

Australia is positioned to take a leading role in revealing the genetic code of:

§ The wallaby – to help us interpret the human genome, understand human and animal fertility and embryonic development.

§ The cotton bollworm – the world’s worst agricultural pet – costing over $225 million per annum in control costs and crop losses alone in Australia, and billions of dollars world-wide.

§ The southern blue gum – as eucalypts are becoming the plantation tree of choice across much of the world. We need to learn how to develop new strains that grow faster and cope with salinity and drought – and how to use timber to replace petrochemical feedstuffs for industry. This effort is currently being driven by other countries with Australia a minor player.

§ Brassica (canola, broccoli, cabbages) – canola is one of the growth crops of Australian agriculture. The Brassica genome would give us the chance to grow our exports and create new foods for the high value Asian markets.

It is important that we continue to support investigations into the economic potential of Australia’s biodiversity – for example building on the success of the Great Barrier Reef’s cone shells as a source of new painkiller, or coral as a source of sun-blocking agents.

The wallaby genome

In 2003 the US government’s NIH determined that they needed the genetic code of a marsupial to help in the interpretation of the human genome. Australia created a consortium to argue for the Tammar wallaby as a model marsupial. Research into the Tammar wallaby has already revealed information about human fertility and the future of the Y chromosome, as well as embryo development (in some ways the young joey can be regarded as a mammalian embryo living outside its mother).

The Americans chose to invest over $50 million in the South American opossum. Nonetheless the NIH agreed to contribute to a smaller study of the wallaby genome provided that Australia could match their effort and do $12 million of work.

There were no relevant federal funding options available and the opportunity would have slipped away except for $4.5 million from the Victorian government and $1.5 million in industry support. The researchers are now seeking an additional $6 million to complete the program. They are working with State governments, and philanthropic organisations. There is currently no applicable Federal funding program.

The wallaby genome project is a flagship project for genomics in Australia that will help create the skills and resources needed to tackle other economically beneficial genomes including: eucalypts, crops, livestock, and pests and diseases.