We hear from time to time of DNA sequencing of the genetic blueprints of various living creatures – their genomes. The Darwin Tree of Life Project is taking the work of a whole new level of complete ecosystems and beyond – it is reading the genomes of all findable plants, animals, fungi, and single-celled organisms in Britain and Ireland and the surrounding seas.

The data is being made available freely, to assist research in areas such as agriculture and biomedicine. The project is part of a vision of the Earth Biogenome Project, which is working to bring together genomes of living creatures from everywhere in the world.

Dr Thomas Mathers of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge describes how the project works, what has been done so far and what has been learned from it. He is a senior computer biologist, and previously worked at the John Innes Centre, studying the genetic evolution of crop pests. His current projects include the study of bird microchromosomes.

“I would like to introduce the audience to the latest advances in biodiversity genomics, where we decipher the genetic code of all living animals, plants and fungi (including samples from the Orkney islands!) at unprecedented speed and quality. We are right at the start of a journey into revolutionary insights for all areas of science, agriculture, industry and medicine based on this data. I will describe why we do it, how we do it, what we’ve achieved so far and what we encountered on the road.”