Sexual HealthMeet The Complete Mouse - Whole Mouse Genome Sequence Published
Are you a man or a mouse? A new paper, published in this week"s issue of
PLoS Biology, explores exactly what distinguishes our genome from that of
the lab mouse. In the first comprehensive comparison between the genes of
mice and humans, scientists from institutions across America, Sweden and
the UK reveal that there are more genetic differences between the two
species than had been previously thought. One-fifth of mouse genes are new
copies that have emerged in the last 90 million years of mouse evolution.
These large differences between genes in humans and the mouse are likely
to
reflect many of the differences that distinguish human and mouse biology.
These findings are reported in a landmark publication describing the
finished genome sequence of the mouse, which, after the human, is only the
second
completed sequence for any mammal. That humans and mice have four-fifths
of their genes in common - and that these genes have been identified -
directly enhances scientists" abilities to pick out mouse genes that are
most applicable to human disease. In effect, what this new research has
shown is how to neatly separate biology that humans share with mice from
biology found in one species only.
By filling in the gaps left by the previous version of the mouse genome, a
vast treasury of new genes has been revealed. Many of these newly
discovered genes are evolving at an unusually rapid pace, probably as a
result of an evolutionary "arms race" among mice and their reproductive
cells.
"In retrospect, our previous picture of the mouse genome was incomplete.
Only when all the missing pieces of the genomic puzzle had been filled in
did
we realize that we had been missing large numbers of genes found only in
mice, and not in humans," says Dr. Leo Goodstadt from the MRC Functional
Genomics Unit.
"These new findings are extremely important in helping us to separate
genes that underpin biology that is the same across all mammals, from
genes that
make humans and mice so different from one another," says Prof Chris
Ponting, from University of Oxford, UK, one of the leaders on this
project.
"With the benefit of hindsight, we now see how incomplete our initial
summary of the mouse genome was," adds Dr Deanna Church, National Center
for
Biotechnology Information at the US National Institutes of Health, who
also led the project. "The painstaking work to complete it has been well
worthwhile. The new findings will allow us to dismiss some commonly held
misconceptions and, more importantly, to reveal many previously hidden
secrets of mouse biology."
Funding: DMC, RA, JC, MD, DM, WH, YK, and the National Institutes of
Health Intramural Sequencing Center were supported by the Intramural
Research
Program of the NIH.CPP, ZB, and LG were supported by the UK Medical
Research Council. AM was supported by the Swiss National Science
Foundation. EEE,
XS, and ZC were supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant
HG002385. EEE is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The
Genome Center at Washington University, The Human Genome Sequencing Center
at the Baylor College of Medicine, and The Broad Institute of Harvard and
MIT are supported by genome sequencing grants from National Human Genome
Research Institute. Chromosomes 2, 4, 11 and X were completed with funding
from the Wellcome Trust. The funders had no role in study design, data
collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the
manuscript.
Competing interests statement: The authors declare that no competing
interests exist.
Citation:
"Lineage-Specific Biology Revealed by a Finished Genome Assembly of the Mouse."
Church DM, Goodstadt L, Hillier LW, Zody MC, Goldstein S, et al. (2009)
PLoS Biol 7(5): e1000112.
Plos Biology