Genome India Database

Why in News?

Recently, India has completed the ‘Genome India’ database’.

• Aim – To create a robust and comprehensive database of India’s genetic diversity.
• Housed at – Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC), Haryana.
• Indian Genomic Data Set – It is the entire collection of 10,000 Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) samples accessible to researchers across within India and globally.

A genome is the complete set of genetic information in living organisms, which is stored in long molecules of DNA called Chromosomes.

• Catalog of genetic variations – The samples come from diverse Indian populations and provide a rich genetic diversity.
• It represents 83 population groups or about 2% of the country’s 4,600 population groups as a database.

• Analysis – The genomes estimate around 27 million low-frequency (or relatively rare) variants, 7 million of them not found in similar reference databases around the world.
• Certain population groups show higher frequencies or different versions of the same gene.
• Data privacy – The database isn’t classified by the names of castes or tribes but it is numerically coded.
• Researchers must send a proposal to access the data.
• Significance – It holds the potential targeted clinical interventions and advancing precision medicine for better healthcare.

In Biotech, India now ranks 12^th globally and 3^rd in the Asia-Pacific region.

References

1. The Hindu| 10,000 Human Genomes Database
2. PIB| India’s Genomic Revolution