First Complete Asian Genome

Chinese Scientists Map Out First Asian Genome Friday, 12 October 2007 Chinese scientists have successfully completed the first sequence map of the diploid genome of an Asian individual, China Daily report. The Chinese project was undertaken by the Shenzhen branch of the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), along with the National Engineering Research Center of Systematic Bioinformatics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is now on display at the Ninth Annual China Hi-Tech Fair in the city. The results, based on a normal Chinese man of Han nationality, represent only the third human genome to have been sequenced in the world. It took only six months to analyzing his genome sequence with the advanced techniques used.

American scientists earlier this year created the first two genome sequence maps, that of James Watson and Craig Venter respectively. "We can never change our genes, but we can understand our genetic structure better by creating a fine map of our genome sequence. This is very helpful in preventing or controlling diseases, such as cancers," Wang Jun, the leader of the project and vice-director of BGI's Shenzhen branch, said. The next step of the project will be to sequence the genomes of more individuals to identify genetic variations in Asian populations and explore the essential mechanisms behind many diseases. Wang said the researchers would soon select 99 Chinese people for the project. The number of research subjects will be expanded to 10,000 in the following couple of years. "Everyone will have his genome sequenced in the near future for better healthcare," he said. At the same time, the project is trying to lower the cost to popularize the technology, Yang Huanming, director of the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said. The project in Shenzhen has lowered the cost to US$5 million. It is expected that the cost will drop to 200,000 yuan (US$26,300) by 2010. "Our final goal is to reduce the cost to less than 10,000 yuan, so that the technology will benefit more people," Yang said. He said he hoped that in the near future genome sequencing for patients would become as common as a physical examination. .........

See also: First Asian genome sequenced Nature 12 October 2007 doi:10.1038/news.2007.161

Reference to the published result (added 5 November, 2008): The diploid genome sequence of an Asian individual Jun Wang, Wei Wang, Ruiqiang Li, Yingrui Li, Geng Tian, Laurie Goodman, Wei Fan, Junqing Zhang, Jun Li, Juanbin Zhang, Yiran Guo, Binxiao Feng, Heng Li, Yao Lu, Xiaodong Fang, Huiqing Liang, Zhenglin Du, Dong Li, Yiqing Zhao, Yujie Hu, Zhenzhen Yang, Hancheng Zheng, Ines Hellmann, Michael Inouye, John Pool, Xin Yi, Jing Zhao, Jinjie Duan, Yan Zhou, Junjie Qin, Lijia Ma, Guoqing Li, Zhentao Yang, Guojie Zhang, Bin Yang, Chang Yu, Fang Liang, Wenjie Li, Shaochuan Li, Dawei Li, Peixiang Ni, Jue Ruan, Qibin Li, Hongmei Zhu, Dongyuan Liu, Zhike Lu, Ning Li, Guangwu Guo, Jianguo Zhang, Jia Ye, Lin Fang, Qin Hao, Quan Chen, Yu Liang, Yeyang Su, A. san, Cuo Ping, Shuang Yang, Fang Chen, Li Li, Ke Zhou, Hongkun Zheng, Yuanyuan Ren, Ling Yang, Yang Gao, Guohua Yang, Zhuo Li, Xiaoli Feng, Karsten Kristiansen, Gane Ka-Shu Wong, Rasmus Nielsen, Richard Durbin, Lars Bolund, Xiuqing Zhang, Songgang Li, Huanming Yang & Jian Wang Nature 456, 60-65, 6 November 2008, doi:10.1038/nature07484

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