NEW research on the genetic make up of yeast may reap huge benefits in understanding inherited diseases in humans. It was announced yesterday that scientists collaborating on a £20 million European Commission funded project had established the full genetic code - or DNA sequence - of yeast.
The European Commission described it as a historic milestone in understanding how cells function. The research will greatly benefit the brewing, baking and pharmaceutical industries as well gas medicine.
Scientists have already determined the full genetic sequence - or genome - of simple organisms such as bacteria and viruses. However, yesterday's announce meat on yeast, released simultaneously in Brussels and the US, is the first time the genome of a higher organism has been completely determined.
The £20 million project, started by the Commission 10 years ago, involved more than 100 laboratories around the world, including a team from Trinity College Dublin, led by Dr Ken Wolfe. In an extensive collaboration, this international network of laboratories determined the genetic code for the 6,000 plus genes spread over yeast's 16 chromosomes.
The result is a massive database containing the ordered genetic code for the 12 million units of DNA that make up an individual yeast cell. It is, the EC says, like a book: "Today we have the text but we don't yet understand it. The real work of reading that text and understanding it begins now.
Dr Wolfe told The Irish Times that his team had "sequenced" or mapped 20 of the 6,000 genes. "It's basically routine work, but the exciting work, analysing the sequences, starts now. It's as if we just made a map and can now start exploring."
Of the 6,000 yeast genes sequenced so far, scientists believe they know the function of one third and can guess the function of another third, but say they have no idea of what the remaining 2,000 genes do.
They also found that half the yeast genes are the same as, or similar to, human genes which they hope will help them understand a variety of inherited human diseases including certain cancers, Huntington's disease and muscular dystrophy.