UI scientists to work on Microbial Genome Initiative

Two UI scientists will have roles in the U.S. Department of Energy's new
effort in genome sequencing. UI microbiology professors Carl Woese and Gary
Olsen will participate in the $3 million Microbial Genome Initiative to
analyze the genetic material in microorganisms that live in extreme
conditions.

The project - a spinoff from the DOE's Human Genome Program - potentially
could have enormous payoffs, Woese said. Genetic information obtained in
the work may give scientists insights into the nature and origin of cells
and generate industrial applications, he said.

Woese and Olsen will collaborate with researchers from The Institute of
Genomic Research (TIGR), a non-profit facility in Maryland, under one of
three related grants funded by the DOE.

Microorganisms consist of two types, bacteria and archaea. In the initial
grants awarded under the DOE initiative, scientists will be focusing on
archaea that thrive in extremely hot temperatures. In 1977, Woese and Ralph
S. Wolfe, now an emeritus professor of microbiology at the UI, identified
the archaea.

"This is the beginning of a new direction in biological research," Woese
said. "Microbial genomes are less than 1 percent the size of the human
genome, but this size is deceptive because the genes in microbial genomes
are far more densely packed. So their small size belies their potential
importance.

"Since 100 microbial genomes could be sequenced for a fraction of the money
that already has gone into the Human Genome Project, the sequencing of
microbial genomes will not be a significant drain on federal resources, and
the benefits derived may be enormous."

The $3 billion Human Genome Project - coordinated by the DOE and the
National Institutes of Health - is a 15-year effort to find the precise
locations of genes on every human chromosome.