London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2025

Huge plan to map the DNA of all life in British Isles

Huge plan to map the DNA of all life in British Isles

Scientists are planning to sequence the genomes of all species, including plants, animals, fungi, found in Britain and Ireland.

Seventy thousand species.

That’s the best guess for the tally of life, including plants, animals and fungi, found in Britain and Ireland.

And it’s the target of one of biology's most ambitious projects - scientists want to map the DNA of every single one of these organisms.

Having these genomes - each a complete set of genetic information for a species - could transform how we understand the natural world. And there could be benefits for us too in the hunt for nature-inspired medicines and materials.

In Plymouth, the starting point for this immense task is some thick, sticky mud.

Sediment scooped up from the bottom of the Plymouth Sound has been hoisted onto the deck of the research vessel that belongs to the Marine Biological Association.

It's placed in a sieve and hosed off, revealing a host of wriggling creatures.

The sediment in Plymouth is jam packed with life


"You can see we've got some bivalves, which are related to clams and mussels. We've also got a gastropod shell - these are quite similar to terrestrial garden snails. And we've got some brittle stars. So lots of different taxa (groups of organisms), lots of different types of animals, which is great," explains marine biologist Patrick Adkins.

Today he's focussing on marine worms known as polychaetes, and there are lots living in the sediment.

Some look like earthworms and others are covered in tiny bristles, squiggling about. But the weirdest is the mud owl. If you squint, its markings look a bit like the face of an owl, until it extends a tubular proboscis, shattering the illusion.

All of them will have their genomes sequenced for the project, which is called the Darwin Tree of Life and includes participation from the Natural History Museum.

"Even if you look at polychaetes, which is just one group of worms, it's a big task with hundreds and hundreds of species," Patrick says.

"We've now got over 100 species of polychaetes collected - it seems like a lot, but really, it's just the beginning."

These marine worms are known as mud owls


The research covers every kind of habitat.

In Oxfordshire, woodlands are the focus.

As dusk falls, a family of badgers emerge from their sett. They snuffle around in the gloom, hunting for some snacks after their sleep.

The animals here in Wytham Woods have been studied in detail for more than 30 years, but now their genome has just been sequenced too.

The genome of the European badger has now been sequenced as part of the project


"The genome can answer so many questions that we couldn't answer before," says Ming-Shan Tsai from the University of Oxford.

"We can explore why the badger is very different from other animals - and their unique behaviour."

This includes the puzzle of delayed implantation, where badgers mate and an egg is fertilised, but the process of pregnancy is put on hold until it's the best time of year to have a cub.

"Getting a genome will also help us to understand why badgers are more susceptible to tuberculosis, for example, than other animals," she added.

At the centre of this project is the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge.

Every day, samples from all over the British Isles are arriving.

Whether it's a leaf from a tree, or some blood taken from an animal, the material is weighed, then frozen with liquid nitrogen, and finally pulverised into a fine powder. From this, the DNA can be extracted, and the genome sequenced.

The samples are sent to the Wellcome Sanger Institute


Sanger played a leading role in the human genome project, which took years to complete. Now sequencing a species takes a few days.

Mark Blaxter, who leads the Tree of Life project, says: "When the human genome was sequenced, it changed the way we do human biology forever. And it's really transformed how we see ourselves and how we work with our health and illness.

"And we want to make that possible for all of biology. So we want everybody, working on any species, or any group of species, anywhere in the world, able to have this ultimate foundation."

The genetic work should show how species relate to each other, and reveal their similarities and also where their differences lie.

"It's filling up the library of life," Mark explains.

This single-celled organism was found in some pond water


But the tiniest life forms are posing the biggest challenges.

Jamie McGowan, from the Earlham Institute in Norwich, is staring through a microscope at a single drop of pond water. It’s full of single-celled organisms known as protists.

"There's two little green cells here - they're both micro algae. They're photosynthetic, just like plants," he says.

They are the smallest organisms being sequenced for the project, but it's not easy.

"They're really hard to identify, because some of them look really similar. And they're hard to sequence too because they're starting off with really, really tiny amounts of DNA."

Life on Earth began with single-celled organisms, and we could not exist without them.

"We completely depend on them to survive," Jamie explains.

"Protists occupy a really important position in the food chain, where they eat organisms that are smaller than them, such as bacteria and viruses. And then they, in turn, get eaten by larger organisms.

"And quite a lot of protists can produce oxygen - in fact they actually produce about half of the planet's oxygen supply.

"So having their genome sequenced is really important to be able to identify them. Their biodiversity is so poorly understood. And we need to protect them, because they're so critical for all of the rest of life."

Rock pools hold many different species which could help to inspire nature-based medicines or materials


Back in Plymouth, and the marine biologists have moved onshore to take a look inside some rock pools.

Each is a colourful microcosmos, containing a multitude of species.

Something flashes past the seaweed.

"It’s a pipefish," says Kes Scott-Somme, a research assistant on the Darwin Tree of Life project. "It's basically like a stretched-out seahorse. They're beautiful - and they're very, very well adapted to their environment. They can live quite high on the shore like this."

But learning about the DNA of creatures like this won't just help us to better understand the species - it could also help us.

"Marine environments are incredibly volatile, and so the animals that live here have to be even more adapted to their space than we are. And that means that they have very specific ways of coping with their environment," says Kes.

"This could help us to find things like antibiotics, medicines and materials. The marine environment is a great place to look for that information."

The Darwin Tree of Life project has a tough deadline - all 70,000 species sequenced by the end of 2030.

There is a lot of work to do, but this project could give us our most detailed understanding yet of the diversity of life.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
×