Systematic Sequencing at FYSA

This laboratory is involved in systematic sequencing since its very beginning as one of the coordinators of the Yeast genome sequencing programme initiated in 1989 and terminated in 1996.

We are now taking an active part in the European sequencing consortiums concerning the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the parasite Leishmania major and the symbiotic bacteria Rhizobium meliloti.

We are also sequencing the whole 1.8 Mb genome of Streptococcus thermophilus, a major agent in yoghurt processing, in the frame of a Région Wallonne financed collaboration with the Unité de génétique of the UCL and the Walloon company EUROGENTEC.

If our sequencing effort has already produced some downstream results, most of them are still to come. For example, the yeast project has led to the discovery of about 2000 completely new genes. Among them are analogues of human genes whose mutation leads to diseases. The EUROFAN project, in which this laboratory participates, is investigating their functions by systematic gene disruption and phenotypic analysis of the mutants.