A research team led by two University of Illinois scientists has won a $10 million grant to help provide the first sequence of the swine genome, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced Friday.

Lawrence Schook and John Beever, UI professors who last summer completed a side-by-side comparison of the pig and human genomes, will head a project that will involve researchers at other U.S. universities, the government and laboratories in France and England. The project is expected to be completed within two years at a total cost of about $20 million, Schook said.

"Virtually everything we do with pork production will be impacted by this genome work," said Mark Boggess, director of animal science at the National Pork Board. "We'll thoroughly understand the biology involved with the way things are genetically and then we can apply management, selection and nutrition programs to fit."

The Pork Board and several state pork-producer associations will contribute about $1 million to the research, Boggess said Friday.

A genome is the complete set of genetic instructions for making an organism. Sequencing a genome involves breaking apart the DNA that carries the genes to determine how each gene lines up on a DNA molecule.

Schook and Beever's side-by-side comparison looked at blocks of genes on pig and human chromosomes and found similarities that could eventually give researchers information that can help treat human disease. That comparison provided detail that Schook describes as sentences in a book, while the genome sequencing will break the pig down into the "words and letters."

"Pigs are like humans," Schook said. "They're all different and we know they're different but we can't figure out when the differences are important for normal growth and development or when they lead to disease.

"By having this model pig we have something to compare to. It's a benchmark for understanding how genes contribute to why animals are different even within the same species," he said.

Sequencing the swine genome will give researchers tools they need to develop healthier hogs and improve meat quality, which will eventually be seen by hog producers and consumers, Beever said.

"This is probably the final frontier," said Illinois Pork Producers Association President Darrell Stitzel, who raises about 7,500 hogs annually on his Carroll County farm. "If the geneticists for the swine companies have that information and can use it to improve traits, then it will come down to the farm and we can get the benefits of it."

The genetic material for the sequencing comes from a female Duroc pig that was raised on the South Farms at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus. The same animal was used to study genes that control growth and contribute to meat quality, research that can become even more detailed once the genome is sequenced, Beever and Schook said.

Sequencing the swine genome will involve deciphering the 2.5 billion chemical base pairs that spell out the animal's genetic code. That laboratory work will be done at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in England.

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