tokyo

Japanese government officials are said to be trying to resolve a dispute about strategy between researchers taking part in the Genome Frontier Programme, a project backed by the Science and Technology Agency (STA) and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN).

The 4-billion (US$33-million) project, due to start in October next year, had been intended to be based on new techniques that make use of full-length complementary DNAs (cDNAs) for DNA base sequencing, elucidating gene and protein function, and analysing protein structure. The use of full-length cDNA allows key parts of the clone to be targeted for sequencing, as well as direct production of proteins from the cloned cDNA.

But some leaders of Japan's human genome research who have been advising on the programme are said to oppose this strategy, and to be insisting that the programme be restricted to DNA sequencing.

“The formal description of the project is that it will involve both DNA sequencing and protein-related research, but this is very unlikely to happen,” says a leading genome researcher at Kyoto University. “The protein-related research will probably have to be carried out under a different project.”

The research strategy proposed by RIKEN was planned to combine three projects: sequencing a full-length cDNA using the latest automated high-speed DNA sequencer; producing a genetic ‘encyclopaedia’ of gene and protein functions; and analysing protein structure by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at the ‘NMR Park’ that the STA wanted to set up (see Nature 381, 815; 1996).

But many scientists now fear the RIKEN programme may become little more than an extension of a DNA sequencing project carried out at Japan Science and Technology Corporation, formerly the Japan Information Centre of Science and Technology.

“A national project like this should consider its accountability to the taxpayers,” says Akiyoshi Wada, former dean of science at Tokyo University and the director of Sagami Chemical Centre, a privately funded institute which has filed Japan's first applications for patents on human genes (see Nature 361, 815; 1996). “DNA sequencing alone will not contribute to the understanding of gene function; only through protein-related research can we obtain patentable products for medical use and research.”

A member of the Japanese Diet (parliament) is said to have intervened in the STA budget plan, introducing a requirement that the agency should carry out only DNA sequencing research, which he considers an “international trend”, and postponing protein-related research as being “premature”.

But one project leader at RIKEN claims that, if the proposed projects are abandoned, Japan will miss out on a chance to join the front rank of international genomics research. “DNA sequencing is already being carried out in Europe and the United States, and we are relatively behind in this field.” People in Japan, he says, are reluctant to enter new areas in genetic research, which is still dominated by the ‘traditionalists’.

But another prominent leader of Japanese genome research supports placing an emphasis on DNA sequencing, on the grounds that the Japanese effort in human genome research is not sufficiently advanced. “Although supporters of the protein-related research emphasize the need to compete internationally, that is only to attract funding from the Ministry of Finance,” he says. “Realistically, such an unprecedented project should be considered as a potential project for the future.”

Wada, who argued strongly for automated and high-speed DNA sequencing ten years ago, is bitter about where the Genome Frontier Programme may be heading. “My suggestion was ignored in Japan ten years ago, and this is the main reason why we are lagging behind other countries,” he says. “We cannot be left behind again.”