European Drosophila Genome Project
- Date:
- 1984-2007
- Reference:
- PP/MIA/A/5
- Part of:
- Professor Michael Ashburner: archives
- Archives and manuscripts
Collection contents
About this work
Description
Files regarding the European Drosophila Genome Project, its precursor the European Drosophila Mapping Project, the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project's collaboration with Celera and the Celera Jamboree, and work on the drosophila genome produced after the Drosophila melanogaster sequence was published.
Publication/Creation
1984-2007
Physical description
10 boxes, 3 outsize files, 1 digital item
Biographical note
The European Drosophila Genome Project was a project undertaken by a consortium of European laboratories to sequence the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. The project began life in 1988 as the European Drosophila Mapping Project which aimed to produce a physical map of the Drosophila melanogaster genome. It involved four laboratories based in Cambridge, Dundee, Crete and Madrid. In the mid 1990s the focus shifted to genome sequencing and the European Drosophila Genome Project began around the same time as the Berkeley Drosophila Genomie Project, (BDGP) an American consortium led by Gerry Rubin at the University of California Berkeley. In 1998 the sequencing company Celera announced its intention to sequence the Drosophila melanogaster genome in collaboration with BDGP, with the data being deposited in the publically available database GenBank.
In November 1999 a two week "jamboree" was held at Celera headquarters to annotate the Drosophila melanogaster genome sequence. Over forty researchers from the BDGP and EDGP participated, including Ashburner who was one of the principle organisers. The jamboree was followed by ten days of quality control and assurance work in January 2000. This involved just a handful of people including Ashburner. The sequence was published in March 2000.
Work on the sequence continued after publication. In December 2002 a reannotation of the genome by ten FlyBase curators was published. The Drosophila 12 Genomes Consortium sequenced ten drosophila species genomes in addition to Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila pseudoobscura for comparative analysis in a phylogenetic framework, which was published in November 2007.