Supercomputers and Genetics?

With the price of genomic sequencing going down, the data researchers are able to access is going up. But what is really getting amazing is the amount of plant genetics these researchers are learning from computational tools. They’re using these skills to better organize and study the enormous amount of data. Thomas Juenger, of the University of Texas at Austin, wanted to use the data on exposure of mustard seed green to cold and drought to test the different situations which could help plants on farms adapt to climate change.

Jill Gready, of the Australian National University’s John Curtin School of Medical Research, is interested in changing food security through improving photosynthesis. She claims the best computer in Australia is able to search seed bank data of plants that have well working Rubisco.

The amount of information required for both of these projects would be impossible to do without the help of supercomputing. The only setback is the companies or institutions that do not have the money for the super computing. Imagine if all the labs were funded for the super computing genetics. How many problems or studies could be solved and brought to life. The absence of computational skills are halting researchers in their efforts to help farmers.

  Many organizations are trying to get the skills needed to join in the computational revolution. In 2008, the National Science Foundation formed the iPlant Collaborative which provided the tools and training needed for computational genetics to researchers in the U.S. It was even used by Juenger for nearly a decade! He sequenced the first plant genome, Arabidopsis. 

Gene expression in plants have such variety because they appear in an array of environments, it makes them important and ideal to study. The environmental changes and insect effects on the plant can change their gene expression. According to Juenger the plant can sense the environmental changes which allows it to change it’s gene expression to prepare for the changes ahead. The results of this study alone helped to better understand plant evolution and adaptations with climate change. This is important because plants = food supply!!

iPlant is even being used to help with the impact of climate change in African nations as well and help link DNA cross to cancer. 
I think this study is super important. Being able to research genetics computationally is a major step in science. As long as it remains as efficient and accurate, these studies could eventually meet their goals, as to determine how plants will adapt to climate change and also if we can solve the food crisis through computational genetics. That is amazing stuff. Who knows where else it could lead to!

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