The FAPESP Genome Program legacy, an initiative launched in 1997, which three years later obtained its first international recognition, is long-lasting, with the publication in the scientific journal Nature of the sequencing of the genetic code of the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which caused the citrus variegated chlorosis in orange trees (v. 406, n. 6.792, July 13, 2000). The cover of the Nature issue was also granted.
The article, which reported the first complete genome of a phytopathogen, was the work of a São Paulo network of 192 researchers supported by FAPESP. That pioneering initiative has created new paradigms of Brazilian research.
Researchers from various institutions and disciplines, from biology to medicine through the then almost unknown bioinformatics, worked together in an extensive virtual network that came together 60 laboratories to face a common goal, in this case, the genetic sequencing of various organisms.
The model challenged the traditional way of establishing partnerships, in which one researcher uses another only when he needs the technical expertise necessary for his work to continue. What was innovative for that moment, today is incorporated into the day-to-day life of national science.
