Dogs
are genetically closer to man than mice, US researchers said,
detailing a partial sequencing of the dog genome.
The researchers at the Institute for Genomic Research and the
Center for the Advancement of Genomics assembled 6.22 million
sequences of dog DNA for nearly 80 percent coverage of the genome,
they said in a statement.
"Comparing the dog sequence data with current drafts of
the human and mouse genome sequences showed that the dog lineage
was the first to diverge from the common ancestor of the three
species, and that the human and dog are much more similar to each
other at the genetic level than to the mouse," they said
in results published in the review Science.
The project found that more than 25 percent, or 650 million base
pairs, of DNA overlap between human and dog.
"The sequence data was used to identify an equivalent dog
gene for 75 percent of known human genes," they added.
"In little more than a decade, genomics has advanced greatly
and we now have approximately 150 completed genomes including
the human, mouse and fruit fly, in the public domain," said
Craig Venter, president of the TCAG.
"Our new method is an efficient and effective way of sequencing
that will allow more organisms to be analyzed while still providing
significant information."
(Agencies)
Updated: 2003-09-29 01:00