Prominent gene researchers fear that access to the complete DNA sequence of rice, the world鈥檚 most important food crop, will be restricted when it is published in a scientific journal.
The rice sequence was completed by Syngenta and the Swiss company is expected publish their work in April in Science. The journal will publish a rice genome special issue on 5 April but will not confirm if Syngenta鈥檚 sequence will be part of it.
But 20 of the world鈥檚 leading scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners, have signed a letter of complaint, fearing 鈥渁 very serious threat to genomics research鈥�.
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Michael Ashburner, at Cambridge University, UK, is the author of the letter and told 快猫短视频: 鈥淎ny attempt by a private company to assert its rights over a plant as fundamental to humanity as rice is wholly wrong and completely immoral.鈥�
Science says the issue is complex. 鈥淲e have to weigh the benefit of publishing some data so that it is in the public domain or having it all deposited as privately held trade secrets,鈥� says Science spokesperson Ginger Pinholster. 鈥淚n the case of the human genome it was felt that publishing was the best option 鈥� for rice, the case is even stronger.鈥�
Syngenta told the BBC on Monday that the company was still finalising the terms of public access to the rice genome information.
Gene bank
Traditionally, research can only be published in a peer review journal if all the results are made freely available to the public. In the case of genome sequencing, the entire sequence data must be deposited in the international public database GenBank.
The one exception was the human genome draft created by the private company Celera and published in Science in February 2001. Ashburner says this was 鈥渦nethical鈥� and adds: 鈥淪ince then I have refused to referee or write for them.鈥�
Pinholster points out that, in relation to Celera鈥檚 human genome data, Science stated: 鈥淎ll researchers, whether academic or commercial, may freely access the data to verify, replicate or challenge the published findings.鈥�
But the scientists claim that 鈥渃ondition of 鈥榝ree access鈥� has not been met鈥�. And Ashburner says: 鈥淕enomic science depends on having the world鈥檚 data in one place so it can be accessed by anyone capable of exploiting it. It is shocking what Science is doing.鈥�
Sue Mayer, from the independent think-tank Genewatch, says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 time for science institutions like Science to act and governments to intervene to prevent these discoveries being subject to monopolies and intellectual property claims. Rice is a staple upon which millions of lives depend.鈥�