“Six years ago this month, scientists launched a massively ambitious effort to sequence the genomes of some 1.67 million plants, animals, fungi, and other microbes—essentially all known eukaryotes, or species with complex cells. It would cost an estimated $4.7 billion and take 10 years, but its leaders argued that having so many full DNA sequences would clarify life’s evolution, help with conservation, improve agriculture, and even aid human health.

Today, the so-called Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) remains well short of raising the necessary billions and is years behind schedule. But it is no longer pure aspiration, as organizers made clear at a meeting that ended last week. Its partners around the world have sequenced 3000 genomes so far, spanning 1060 eukaryotic families, and say they are on track to reach 10,000 species—the goal for the project’s first phase—by 2026.”

From Science.