Dig­i­tal Se­quence In­for­ma­tion

by Me­chas

Mi­cro­bi­ol­o­gists reg­u­larly use se­quence data with­out giv­ing it much thought. What will sur­prise many sci­en­tists is that its use is now be­ing hotly de­bated in in­ter­na­tional sce­nar­ios such as the Con­ven­tion on Bi­o­log­i­cal Di­ver­sity (CBD).

Se­quence data, also known as dig­i­tal se­quence in­for­ma­tion or DSI, refers to dig­i­tal data de­rived from bi­o­log­i­cal ma­te­r­ial. In its sim­plest de­f­i­n­i­tion, it en­com­passes se­quences ob­tained from nu­cleic acids. How­ever, an ex­act de­f­i­n­i­tion is still be­ing de­bated given that it can also cover in­for­ma­tion de­rived from ge­nomic data, like pro­teins and metabo­lites.

Se­quence data is, and has been for quite some time, a cor­ner­stone of both ba­sic and ap­plied bi­o­log­i­cal re­search. It is also a re­source for the de­vel­op­ment of com­mer­cial prod­ucts in the biotech, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, and agri­cul­tural in­dus­tries. Which is why these dis­cus­sions are tak­ing place. If DSI serves as the ba­sis for com­mer­cial prod­ucts, how should po­ten­tial prof­its be dis­trib­uted? In­ter­na­tional ne­go­tia­tors and pol­i­cy­mak­ers rec­og­nize that reg­u­lat­ing use and ac­cess to DSI could neg­a­tively im­pact sci­ence, but they also hope it can pro­vide much-needed rev­enue for con­ser­va­tion of bio­di­ver­sity, one of the main goals of the CBD.

Fig. 1. The im­age shows DSI from Brazil is used by 111 coun­tries, while sci­en­tists in Brazil use DSI from 153 coun­tries. Source. Fron­tispiece: Im­age of DNA Analy­sis Re­search. Source

DSI is a com­mon cur­rency in sci­en­tific re­search. It is pro­duced glob­ally and ac­cessed by mil­lions of sci­en­tists daily in a com­plex and con­tin­ual flow of in­for­ma­tion es­sen­tial to ad­vance knowl­edge (Fig. 1). The open-ac­cess and in­ter­con­nected se­quence data­bases that en­able this in­for­ma­tion shar­ing are avail­able thanks to the In­ter­na­tional Nu­cleotide Se­quence Data­base Col­lab­o­ra­tion. How­ever, pin­point­ing the ex­act ori­gin of a se­quence can prove dif­fi­cult. As is iden­ti­fy­ing users and spe­cific se­quences that serve as bases for com­mer­cial prod­ucts. This means that a sys­tem of track­ing and trac­ing will prove costly and chal­leng­ing to im­ple­ment. In­no­v­a­tive uses of DSI also in­tro­duce new com­pli­ca­tions. Ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence for ex­am­ple can lead to the de­sign of new mol­e­cules and syn­thetic bi­ol­ogy can patch up mul­ti­ple snip­pets of in­for­ma­tion and gen­er­ate se­quences that are not them­selves known to ex­ist in na­ture.

The dis­cus­sions are lengthy and not al­ways easy to fol­low, given the in­ter­na­tional jar­gon used by ne­go­tia­tors. The DSI Sci­en­tific Net­work aims to bridge the worlds of pol­icy and sci­ence. This net­work, com­posed of sci­en­tists from dif­fer­ent ge­o­graph­i­cal lo­ca­tions, pro­vides sci­en­tific in­put for pol­icy dis­cus­sions that are rel­e­vant to sci­en­tific re­search.

Re­cent de­ci­sions re­volve around rules for ac­cess to DSI and how to cap­ture and share the benefits—both mon­e­tary and non-monetary—derived from its use. An agree­ment adopted at the Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties to the CBD (COP15) in 2022 out­lines a path for es­tab­lish­ing a global "mul­ti­lat­eral sys­tem" that would be sim­pler to im­ple­ment. This sys­tem takes into ac­count the need for fair and eq­ui­table shar­ing of any ben­e­fits, while re­spect­ing the in­ter­ests of lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties, in­dige­nous peo­ples, and gov­ern­ments, as well as their sov­er­eignty over ge­netic re­sources.

Re­stric­tions to DSI ac­cess could sig­nify ad­di­tional eco­nomic bur­dens to re­searchers, es­pe­cially in lower-in­come na­tions, and neg­a­tively im­pact sci­en­tific ad­vance­ment and in­no­va­tion. An al­ter­na­tive to ac­cess pay­walls con­sid­ers col­lect­ing mon­e­tary ben­e­fits from down­stream com­mer­cial prod­ucts, which sounds fea­si­ble but re­quires clear and ef­fi­cient iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of such prod­ucts, hope­fully em­pha­siz­ing in­cen­tives rather than penal­ties. In ad­di­tion, there must be some agree­ment on how to dis­burse po­ten­tial funds and chan­nel re­sources for the con­ser­va­tion of bio­di­ver­sity.

DSI is be­com­ing a hot is­sue of de­bate and will con­tinue to be so for some time. Be pre­pared for pol­icy dis­cus­sions on data gov­er­nance and, more im­por­tantly, the de­ci­sions that may be taken dur­ing the next COP16 in Oc­to­ber 2024. The use of DSI ap­pears daunt­ing to many non-sci­en­tists, but to me find­ing con­ver­gence and ne­go­ti­at­ing global DSI use is more chal­leng­ing. It re­quires iden­ti­fy­ing com­mon ground and defin­ing rules among na­tions and stake­hold­ers with very di­verse in­ter­ests to find a so­lu­tion that in­cen­tivizes both sci­ence and dis­cov­ery while pro­vid­ing funds for bio­di­ver­sity. Now that is com­plex­ity.

 

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