By sequencing the genomes of more than 200 nonhuman primates, from palm-size mouse lemurs to 200-kilogram gorillas, researchers have come up with clues to human health and disease—and to the origin of our species.
, represent a massive effort involving more than 100 researchers from about 20 countries who braved logistical challenges and bureaucratic gauntlets to collect blood samples from some 800 wild and captive primates. The resulting data show how knowing a primate’s genetic diversity could improve the odds of saving highly endangered species.
The bigger of the two genome efforts was spearheaded not by a primatologist or evolutionary biologist, but a clinical geneticist at the DNA-sequencing company Illumina. For Kyle Farh, like many in medicine, the genomics revolution has been a source of frustration as well as hope. Human gene sequencing has turned up myriad variants of individual genes that might explain diseases or treatments. But human genetics alone often can’t tell whether a variant is medically relevant.
The ambition was staggering, say some scientists outside the project. “It takes an enormous amount of time, effort, and government permits to obtain genetic samples of wild primates,” says Paul Garber, a biological anthropologist emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. And it’s even more difficult for species classified as threatened—which more than 60% of nonhuman primates are.
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