Unraveling the secrets of marine life evolution via whale genome project

‘Republic of Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute(KORDI)’ launched a minke whale’s genome project by using a next generation sequencing technology

Republic of Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (President: Jung-Keuk Kang) has launched a genome project to find out the secrets of marine life evolution using a minke whale. This research is performed as part of the ‘Marine and Extreme Genome Research Center program’ supported by the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs and has partnered with Theragen Co., Ltd., a venture in bioinformatics.

The whale is the largest mammal in 4.6 billion years of earth's history and is known to have walked on land around 60 million years ago and have evolved from the ancestor of the order Artiodactyla(even-toed) including cows, pigs, hippos, and soon. Therefore, the genomic research of the whale is greatly valuable in understanding its evolution.

A bowhead whale, the longest living creature among mammals, is estimated to have life span of 150~200 years and is expected to provide an important clue to longevity and aging of mammals.

Whales also have distinct and interesting features, compared to other mammals such as the absence of blood coagulation system and the regulation of blood flow while diving, which will contribute to the research on cardiovascular disease as well.

Scientists estimate that the whale genome is approximately 3 billion base pairs(bp) long, which is similar in size to human genome. It is expected that genome information obtained by Next Generation Sequencing(NGS) technology and bioinformatic analysis could provide valuable clues to explain whale's adaptation to marine life.

The research can also provide a valuable framework to compare the genotypes of all the whale species, and lead to the conservation of whale species.

Dr. Jung-Hyun Lee, the principal investigator of the program, at Republic of Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute expressed his opinion on the genome research project, "We will try our best to find out how this big mammal has adapted to the marine environment, and demonstrate out institute’s potential on marine biotechnology ." He added, “The whale genome project will draw a lot of attention worldwide."