Figure: Euglenoids are cosmopolitan and often form dense populations. Photo Souce: Bożena Zakryś / University of Warsaw, Poland. EIN photo contest winner 2021

A project that will generate high-quality reference genomes for the nearly 1,000 known species of euglenoids was launched in November by the Euglena International Network (EIN), a network of scientists who believe that the initiative has the potential to drive breakthroughs ranging from new biofuels and sustainable foods to cancer medicines.

Euglenoids are part of the protist group. These diverse single-celled organisms do not fit into the animal, plant, or fungi groups but are found in an exceptionally wide range of ecosystems around the world. Multiple euglenoid species have translational applications, showing great promise in producing biofuels, nutraceuticals, bioremediation, cancer treatments, and robotics design simulators. This enormous potential has been untapped due to the lack of high-quality reference genomes.

Through the high-quality reference genomes, the EIN hopes to understand the basic biology and evolution of euglenoids, maximize euglenoid applications in ecological and environmental management, and explore, translate, and commercialize euglenoid products. The data that the EIN will collect will be openly available to the scientific community through the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA).

For more details, read the news article in the EIN website.