What should have been a day of scientific triumph, the publication of the human genome, threatens to descend into unseemly scientific squabbling.
Researchers from private company Celera and the publicly-funded Human Genome Project both publish lengthy papers this week, in Science and Nature respectively.
But the uneasy truce between the camps that held at last June鈥檚 announcement that a draft genome had been completed, has been shattered. Many scientists are unhappy that Science will publish Celera鈥檚 version of the genome even though researchers will not be given unrestricted access to its sequence.
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There has also been a war of words between the two over whether Celera鈥檚 鈥減ure shotgun鈥� method really succeeded.
Access all areas?
Venter denies that access to Celera鈥檚 sequence is restricted. 鈥淥urs is accessible, but through subscription. From 1000 on Monday, it will be available free of charge on the internet to any academic for any science they want to do. The one restriction is that they can鈥檛 take the data we鈥檝e produced and give it to a commercial competitor that wants to sell it.鈥�
However, researchers will only be allowed to download one million bases a week, out of a total of three billion. Those who need more will have to sign a letter saying that their intent is not-for-profit.
John Sulston, the former head of the Sanger Centre, describes these conditions as 鈥渦nprecedented鈥�. 鈥淚f you publish a paper that depends on a DNA sequence, you put it into one of the public databases,鈥� he says. This is why the HGP published its papers in a separate journal, Nature, rather than jointly with Celera, he says.
Quality question
Sulston also rejects the claim that Celera won the race to sequence the genome. 鈥淣ow that the papers from the two teams can be inspected, we can for the first time judge the relative strengths of the two versions,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey relied very heavily on the work we put in to get their sequence. Despite this, Celera鈥檚 assembly is comparable with that of the HGP. Far from 鈥榳inning the race鈥�, as they have claimed, their methodology has been found wanting.鈥�
The HGP鈥檚 method is based on mapping the genome, and then sequencing specific pieces. Venter claimed in 1998 that the HGP was a waste of money, and that the pure shotgun method, in which the genome is randomly cut into pieces, sequenced and then assembled by computers, was much faster and more efficient.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to understand where these claims come from,鈥� Venter says. 鈥淭he whole genome sequencing technique gave a wonderful reconstruction of the genome.鈥�
鈥淥ur goal is not to play academic games,鈥� says Venter. 鈥淭he goal is to get a complete sequence so we can start looking for treatments.
Full analysis of the newly-published human genome data will feature in the 17 February issue of 快猫短视频 magazine.
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