The Mollusca 10,000 Genomes Project，M10K+ project, has been launched

In October 2021, Zhenmin Bao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of the School of Marine Life Sciences of Ocean University of China, Huanming Yang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-founder of BGI, Liqun Chen, vice president of the BGI Life Sciences Institute in Shenzhen, Ximing Guo, professor of New Jersey State University, Shi Wang, professor of Ocean University of China, Linlin Zhang, researcher of the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qi Zhou, professor of Zhejiang University, Guangyi Fan, executive director of the BGI Genome Institute in Qingdao, and Oleg Simakov, professor of the University of Vienna, launched the "M10K+ project", namely "The Mollusca 10,000 Genomes Project".

As the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom after arthropods, molluscs belong to the superphylum lophotrochozoa, which has more than 10 animal phyla including molluscs, annelids and brachiopods. Compared with chordates such as fish and birds, lophotrochozoans have been differentiated earlier and evolved for a longer period of time, which is of great scientific importance from the perspective of evolution and development. The M10K+, initiated by the Sino-German Ecological Park, plans to map the genomes of 10,000 species of molluscs and other lophotrochozoan species in three phases over ten years, covering the entire superphylum lophotrochozoa, and establish a large-scale, high-quality genome database to provide a valid and reliable database for important scientific questions on the phylogeny of animals.