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Press Info item.
31/10/2008
Identification of species from their DNA: launch of a database
Special "Biodiversity"
What is this insect? What is this plant? It is to answer these questions, asked every day by farmers, foresters, environmental technicians or customs officers, that INRA is developing the R-Syst database. This will enable the rapid and reliable identification of living organisms thanks to the integration of knowledge acquired at INRA on plants and animals of importance to agriculture and the environment. This challenge is rendered possible by new findings which make it possible to identify an organism through knowledge of part of its DNA, in the same way as a fingerprint.
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For many years, INRA researchers have been studying a wide variety of living organisms, whether they are of value to agriculture and forestry or, on the contrary, are pests or enemies. This research is of increasing importance to society in numerous areas: the monitoring crop pests or vectors of human disease, the management of biodiversity, the traceability of timber, the monitoring of water quality, etc. Whether the aim is to stop a disease that kills trees from crossing French borders, to understand which mosquitoes spread Chikungunya or to monitor the decline of pollinating insects, precise knowledge of the organisms involved is essential. The recent development of genomics offers researchers a new and extremely reliable tool for identification. Indeed, each species can be distinguished by specific traits in its genome, so that it can be identified by analysis of its DNA, which is then used in the same way as a fingerprint.
INRA scientists have accumulated many years' experience in the description, classification and recognition of living organisms, to which skills can now be added their knowledge of the genome and its variability. All these aspects will be now be made available to the wider community thanks to the development of a database accessible via the internet which will enable the identification of organisms from sequencing of their genome, a technique that is increasingly accessible. The user will send the sample to be identified (e.g. a caterpillar found in an apple) to a specialised sequencing company. The sequence thus obtained will then be run through the R-Syst database for comparison with the collection of sequences obtained by INRA and other research agencies, enabling rapid identification. Users will then be provided with a documented and illustrated datasheet containing all the information available, and they may also be able to obtain advice concerning management.
This database is being supported by a network of laboratories at INRA and other research agencies which hold collections of organisms that serve as references for identification:
- Insects that constitute pests for European plants: 2000 species at INRA in Montpellier,
- Aphids from France and elsewhere in Europe: 600 species at INRA in Montpellier and Rennes,
- Bees from France: 350 species at INRA in Avignon,
- Parasitoid organisms: 50 strains of crop pest Lepidoptera egg parasites at INRA in Sophia-Antipolis,
- Forest pests: 200 quarantine pests (i.e. banned in France and under surveillance) at INRA in Orleans,
- Mycorrhizal fungi of value to forests and agriculture: several thousand at INRA in Nancy.
- Bacteria causing plant diseases: 5000 strains at INRA in Angers,
- Micro-algae: 300 species of diatoms at INRA in Thonon,
- Guianese forest trees: a living collection of 750 species set up by the IRD in Guiana.
In total, more than 30 people (researchers, engineers and technicians) from different research agencies, aided by numerous bioinformatics specialists, are involved in this network in France.
Launch of the R-Syst website is scheduled for 2009. Its first version will have 3 modules: Guainese trees, pest insects and plant pathogenic bacteria.
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