Tomorrow is National DNA Day, in commemoration of the 1953
discovery of the molecule’s double helix structure and the 2003
completion of the Human Genome Project. But while the focus of
the government-conceived holiday is on the DNA of one familiar
species, homo sapiens, there are some other genomes worth
considering on a day devoted to nucleic acid. The Human Genome
Project, as I learned researching for an interview on genetic
testing with Nancy Spinner, began in 1990 and was originally
planned to take 15 years. Advances in sequencing technology
moved so quickly that the project finished two years early. In
2005, the NSF, USDA, and DOE funded a project at Washington
University and Iowa State University to sequence the maize
genome. The two institutions published a draft of the genome in
February of this year. News of the corn genetic sequencing
arrived the same week the Svalbard Seed Vault opened in Norway—a
coincidence I noted on Science Progress. Each project represents
different but complementary approach