Jonathan Eisen reveals the real motivations behind Craig Venter's ocean metagenomics project.
It was just a few years ago that Dr. Venter announced that the human genome sequenced by Celera Genomics was in fact, mostly his own. And now, Venter has revealed a second twist in his genomic self-examination. Venter was discussing his Global Ocean Voyage, in which he used his personal yacht to collect ocean water samples from around the world. He then used large filtration units to collect microbes from the water samples which were then brought back to his high tech lab in Rockville, MD where he used the same methods that were used to sequence the human genome to study the genomes of the 1000s of ocean dwelling microbes found in each sample. In discussing the sampling methods, Venter let slip his latest attack on the standards of science - some of the samples were in fact not from the ocean, but were from microbial habitats in and on his body.
Go check out Jonathan's blog for the whole thing.
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As I note in my posting, this thing has been going around the net for days, since April 1 (i.e., an April Fools joke). Although clearly not everyone recognizes it as that. Also see Charkinblog for an earlier posting of this.
It would have been awesome if it got more publicity on april 1 -- it's a good gag.
Well, alas it did not. But I got it by email from many people. I guess I should have put it up on my blog then no?
That's what blogs are for. Anyway, thanks for sharing it with the world.
You know...
With the cost of sequencing coming down it would be interesting to do a sequence of an individual's genome, and that of his attendant biome, both external and internal. And as part of these sequencings learn what in the way of genetic material the myriad life forms share. Is there sharing of genetic material between life forms, to what degree, and is this material in whole or in part expressed in different groups? Did our "house guest" bacteria get the genes for expressing the proteins that mark them as us from us?
I think there are several groups working on personal genome sequencing efforts but I have no idea if any of them are also doing at the same time sequencing of the respective microbial population. It would be interesting to have both since they are two large factors that might shape the response to drugs or metabolism.
Regarding the Craig Venter story, I liked the idea of joint PLoS/Nature journal :). A marriage of open access with the best team of science related web development would be great for everyone.
I like the idea of PLON too ... however, many people told me that was the key line that made them realize it was a joke. So apparently people think it is more likley that Craig would do all these things than that Nature would do PLON.