Scientists want to sequence all animals, fungi and plants on Earth

Jul 31st 2025|4 min read

The Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) project aims to sequence the genomes of all animals, fungi and plants found in Great Britain and Ireland—some 35,000 in total. That is a colossal undertaking whose first phase is almost complete. Speaking at a meeting of evolutionary biologists held in Beijing on July 23rd, Peter Holland of the University of Oxford told scientists that he and his colleagues had already collected nearly 8,000 species. By December, he added, they hope to have sequenced 3,000 of them (the current count is 2,034).