KEY POINTS:
Every New Zealander with an internet connection is being invited to take part in a unique research project.
Using the same software that is harnessing the power of about three million computers worldwide to search for extraterrestrial life, a Massey University professor wants to enlist help in unravelling the kiwi genome.
David Lambert, an evolutionary biologist at Massey's New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, hopes hundreds of thousands of people will take part in the effort, which he expects to take a number of years.
Playing a part will involve installing Boinc, a program that puts your computer to work when it switches into screensaver mode. Boinc (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) was originally developed for the SETI@home project which, since 1999, has been using idle time on millions of PCs to analyse radio signals from space for signs of life.
Needless to say, it hasn't yet found any. But it keeps looking. It works by sending chunks of data to a connected PC for it to chug through when it would otherwise just be displaying a picture of the owner's pet - or whatever other screensaver they favour.
Once the PC (or Mac - Boinc works with either) has finished analysing each data chunk, it automatically uploads the results to the SETI project server.
Lambert, working with bioinformatics specialist Sankar Subramanian and computing specialist Chris Messom, who runs Massey's centre for parallel computing, is about to start using the same process to decode the genome of the North Island brown kiwi.
The project, sponsored by the BNZ and the Massey Foundation, will have three phases. The first is to sequence the protein-coding segments of the kiwi genome.
"We want to focus on those because we think they will be helpful in terms of our understanding of kiwi as animals," Lambert says. "We'll get a whole lot of data about what genes the kiwi has to enable it to withstand viruses and bacteria in its environment, what genetic armoury it has."
The kiwi has an estimated 20,000 protein-coding genes, represented by different combinations of about 150 million pairs of the chemical bases adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine.
Lambert has already analysed 12 million base pairs using a DNA sequencer at the University of Otago, decoding 1700 of the genes. The Otago machine is one of a new generation of sequencers that is revolutionising the field, he says.
"They allow you to sequence millions of times faster than we've been able to in the past."
The machine works by taking a DNA sample and sequencing it multiple times. "What this effectively means is that we can get at errors with a high degree of accuracy."
A similar principle will apply using Boinc. The same chunk of DNA - perhaps 30 base pairs long - will be sent to hundreds of volunteer machines.
"We put those bits on what we call a 'scaffold' and the scaffold is from the chicken genome, which has been fully sequenced."
"Your computer will chug away and plot those little pieces of kiwi sequence on to the chicken scaffold, and once it's done that it will send the information back."
Lambert's team will then filter out errors. Phase one, which Lambert says could be under way in about a month, will take up to six months. The next two phases could take a number of years.
A similar undertaking in Australia, to decode the kangaroo genome, is still incomplete several years and millions of dollars later, says Aussie-born Lambert.
He sees no particular irony in an Australian being behind the effort to unravel the genetic makeup of the kiwi, but hopes we can borrow some of Australia's "attitude" in tackling the task.
"Most people are interested in science - they want to read about it and watch programmes about it on television - but the usual reality is that they can't actually do much. This is one way people can learn a bit about genomes."
The process of decoding and reassembling DNA is like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together, he says.
"If we get thousands of New Zealanders helping to do this, we can put the whole thing together."
Interested in being part of the kiwi genome project? Keep an eye on the BNZ-sponsored site www.savethekiwi.org.nz
Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland technology journalist
