As a science reporter, there are few worse stories to cover than the rough draft sequence of a genome. Beyond technical issues – draft genomes are often sequenced to low coverage and riddled with mistakes – the science tends to be high on promise and potential but low on results or even hypotheses.

This week, we learned that the turkey genome might help breeders uncover genes related to fertility and nutrition, while the cacao genome sequence may yield tastier chocolate – someday. When researchers at the Sanger Institute announced a draft of the Tasmanian Devil genome today, I figured more of the same. Boy, was I wrong.

Not only did Elizabeth Murchison’s team at Sanger sequence and assemble the Tasmanian Devil genome to fairly respectable 80-fold coverage, they have experiments in mind that require the genome sequence.

Tasmanian Devils suffer from a transmissible cellular tumour – devil facial tumor disease – that is spread when the animals bite one another. It could wipe out the entire population in a few deacdes.

Last year, Murchison’s team identified the cells that transmit the tumour and showed that all the cells can be traced to a single individual. They also sequenced tumour DNA and identified a handful of candidate genes that might explain the malignancy.

Now with the complete genome of a healthy Tasmanian Devil named Salem, her team can determine more conclusively which genes and mutations underlie the disease. This information could lead to tests that can determine whether an animal has the tumour or not before they show symptoms, as well as help track the spread of the tumour. But it willl also offer some insight into the basic mechanisms that cause cells to turn cancerous and spread. “It’s really quite a unique situation in biology. Insight into this tumour will give us a unique look at the evolution of cancer,” Murchison says.

You can’t ask for much more than that in a draft genome sequence.

Image: Wikimedia Commons