The key to understanding the human genome will be sequencing the genome of the lab mouse, according to scientists attending the recent human genome meeting in Vancouver. 'That will be the Rosetta Stone in terms of interpreting the human genome', said Steven Jones of the Genome Sequence Centre in Vancouver.
Like the human genome, the mouse genome is made up of around three billion base-pairs of DNA. In both genomes, only about three per cent of the DNA makes up genes - the rest is apparently useless 'junk' DNA. But the DNA sequence of many genes has been conserved during evolution, so most human genes have similar mouse counterparts. Comparing the two genomes will allow scientists to pick out the genes from the junk DNA. Studying mouse genes will also help scientists work out what many human genes do.
The US government has awarded $130m towards a public effort to read the entire genetic information of a mouse, and the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) is providing funds for 50 million base pairs of the sequence.
The mouse genome project is expected to begin in earnest later this year, once scientists have completed a first draft of the human genome. The aim is to have a rough draft of the mouse genome by 2003, and a completed version by 2005. Celera, the US firm racing to complete the human genome ahead of the publicly-funded project, began its own mouse genome project earlier this month.
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