EXCERPT

Man is not the measure of all things, at least not all thing genomic. Otherwise, we could have sequenced the human genome and called it a day. No, we're widening our genomic vision so far that we just sequence the DNA of every eukaryotic organism on the planet. It would be a huge undertaking, but well worth the effort, insist the advocates of the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a moonshot for biology that would complete its task in 10 years.

To date, the genomes of less than 0.2% of eukaryotic species---that is, all nonbacterial and nonarchaeal species---have been sequenced. That leaves a lot of work for the EBP, an international initiative that proposes to sequence and functionally annotate the genomes of 1.5 million known species of eukaryotes, a massive group that includes plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms whose cells have a nucleus that houses their chromosomal DNA. The EBP also seeks to reveal some of the estimated 10 to 15 million unknown species of eukaryotes, most of which are single-cell organisms, insects, and small animals in the oceans.

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