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Human Genome Project: Japanese Perspective

T. Gojobori, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

2 The Present Situation of the Human Genome Project in Japan

As genome research advances internationally, there has been increasing recognition that genome research constitutes the necessary foundation for the future development of biology, medical research, and biotechnology. In particular, the necessity of establishing a large-scale genome-sequencing center has been accepted widely. However, the realization of this plan has been difficult because of budget limitations.

Since the basic law of science and technology development was passed in 1997, the budget limitations have, to some extent, disappeared under the national goal that Japan should become a country of creative science and technology. Because of this basic law, the government invested approximately $US 200 million in the genome research project in the 1998 fiscal year alone. Presently, various activities in JHGP are conducted under the initiative of governmental organizations and private industries. MONBUSHO successfully established the Center for Information Biology in NIG to support DDBJ and the newly established Human Genome Research Center in Tokyo University. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the MHW coordinated a promotion business venture of genome-related enterprise and the STA created the genome science center in Yokohama. Moreover, large research grants were made to many genome research groups through various funding mechanisms. However, not all of these activities are along the lines of well-planned strategies of genome research.

The general focus of JHGP is toward the determination of large-scale genome sequences and a functional analysis of the genes that will be discovered by sequence determination. JHGP is placing more emphasis on the areas of genomic structure, function, and information. As for genome sequence determination, Kitazato University, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, and STA and the Product Evaluation Center under MITI are pushing the genome sequencing of microorganisms by producing 122Mb each year. In 1995, the Japanese Science and Technology Corporation initiated the human genome-sequencing project. The subgenomic segments such as HLA, immunogloblin variable, Down's syndrome, and oncogene-related regions, have been determined for about 15Mb by Kitazato University, Cancer Institute, Keio University and Tokai University.

In total, the sequence production in Japan is about 5Mb per year, which is one order of magnitude smaller than that of the Sanger Center in the United Kingdom and the Sequence Center at Washington University in the United States. Therefore, JHGP has great expectations of the role of the newly established Genome Science Center, which is planned to produce 30–50Mb per year. Kazusa Research Institute is producing several Mb genome sequences of Arabidopsis per year. Moreover, the genome project team supported by MAFF has a ten-year plan of sequence determination of the complete rice genome of 400Mb, producing 20Mb per year for the initial several years. In summary, the sequencing capacity of genomes in Japan has so far been 15–20Mb per year. Judging from recent increases of the number of genome research groups focusing on bacteria, fungi, lower organisms, insects, and fish and the enhancement of genome research on humans and the mouse, 200Mb sequence production per year is expected in the near future.

JHGP has a slight edge over other countries in the field of functional genomics. In particular, the Osaka University genome team was the first to analyze a cDNA expression profile of human genetic data (called 'body mapping') and other genome teams have quickly developed a full-length cDNA determination technique. Although these activities were not directly connected to a bioindustry as they are in the United States, MITI recently pushed the utilization of these technical advances to industry. Moreover, human genome diversity has become recognized as important for disease gene analysis and functional analysis. In particular, the so-called 'complex diseases' such as multi component diseases are becoming important targets of the human genome diversity project (see Human Genome Diversity and its Value). This project will require a lot of genetic data concerning the Japanese population, in particular a large amount of polymorphism data from several thousand people (see Race: Genetic Aspects).

Several preliminary research projects have already started in Japan. The cDNA project of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) genome has been conducted by NIG in cooperation with the Sanger Center and Washington University. The B. subtilius and E. coli genome teams have already begun functional analysis of all genes contain