Massively parallel science
The Plant Sciences Institute helped to usher in a whole generation of genomic-related technologies to the Iowa State University campus. But advances in technology never end, so it is important that we stay ahead in this rapidly evolving area. DNA sequencing is an example of the rapid pace of technology. The sequence of the human genome was completed in 2003 by a public consortium costing more than $500 million. Since that time, newer sequencing technologies have appeared that would reduce the costs for sequencing a whole human genome to $100,000. New sequencing technologies are "massively parallel sequencing platforms" that allow for millions of pieces of DNA to be sequenced all at once, producing as much as one terabyte (1 trillion bytes) of raw data every three days.
What is the use of that much information? One important application is "metagenomics," the analysis of DNA of whole populations of organisms, not just from a single organism. A metagenomics analysis can be conducted on a sample of soil containing hundreds of different microbes. Other uses might be surveys of all genes expressed in a given plant or animal. For example, from "deep" sequencing analysis of RNAs obtained from a single plant tissue, one could determine all the genes that are expressed in that tissue. Such an approach has been undertaken in a project led by Patrick Schnable, professor in the departments of Agronomy and Genetics, Developmental and Cell Biology and director of the Center for Plant Genomics, in which they used a massively parallel sequencing platform to characterize RNAs isolated by laser microdissection from the shoot apical meristems of corn plants. (Emrich et al. 2007, Genome Research 17: 69-73)
So while the rapid pace of technological development presents challenges, it also makes possible some very exciting science.
Stephen Howell
Director
