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Scientists question accuracy of Celera fruitfly genome
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - Scientists in the United States on Wednesday questioned the accuracy of the fruitfly genome sequenced by Celera Genomics, saying there are numerous and significant discrepancies.
The Rockville, Maryland company, which also mapped the human genetic code, published the genome of the fruitfly to much fanfare nearly two years ago in the journal Science.
But scientists at Stanford University in California, who compared 1,049 proteins from Celera's genome of the fruitfly Drosophila with information from a genome database, said it contains numerous mistakes which cast doubt on the accuracy of the human sequence.
"I think the publication (of the fruitfly genome) was a bit rushed," Samuel Karlin, a specialist in bioinformatics, told Reuters in a telephone interview from California.
"It turns out that more than 50 percent of the sequences that were previously known disagree substantially by more than one percent (with Celera's)."
Karlin and his colleagues' comparison showed that about 26 percent of the genes from Celera's fruitfly genome were a perfect match with the database information. Another 29 percent were nearly perfect but 45 percent had mismatches, insertions or deletions.
GENOME SEQUENCE
If the fruitfly genome contains errors Karlin and his team wonder how accurate Celera's human genome sequence is.
"I am not making any statement about the human genome but I am throwing in the caveat that anybody who tries to deduce anything based on the current rough draft of the genome should be very careful," Karlin added.
No one from Celera was immediately available to comment.
Fruitflies are used extensively in laboratories for research and share many of their genes with humans.
Celera used a controversial "shotgun" method to map the genes which they say is faster than traditional methods. Scientists working for the publicly funded Human Genome Project said the shotgun method was not as accurate as the standard way of sequencing genes.
Karlin did not question the accuracy of the different sequencing methods. He said he had the impression that scientists at Celera rushed the genome out and didn't check it.
The first sequence of the human genome, containing 3.1 billion letters of DNA showing we have about 30,000-40,000 genes, was published in February. It showed that humans have only twice as many genes as a fly or worm.
Celera had raced with the publicly funded Human Genome Project to be the first to sequence the human genome. The achievement was announced jointly by both teams.
Scientists predict the human genome will change the way they do research and revolutionise medicine by accelerating the search for disease-causing genes and treatments customised to individuals. |
