Posted on 12/07/2005 5:14:45 PM PST by neverdem
Researchers have decoded the dog genome to a high degree of accuracy, allowing deep insights into the evolutionary history not only of Canis familiaris but also of its devoted companion species, Homo sapiens.
The dog whose genome has been sequenced is Tasha, a female boxer whose owners wish to remain anonymous, said Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, a biologist at the Broad Institute in Cambridge who led a large group of colleagues in the DNA sequencing effort. Their findings are being reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
The world's dog population numbers some 400 million, divided into about 400 breeds. The researchers chose to sequence Tasha's genome because boxers are quite inbred, easing the decoding task, and because since she is a female, they did not have to bother with a Y chromosome, whose long palindromic regions make it particularly hard slogging.
One insight that has emerged from having a fairly complete dog genome, in addition to those for humans and mice, is that researchers can begin to see the essence of what makes a mammal. The same 5 percent of DNA is conserved in all three species, and this presumably is evolution's basic toolkit for constructing a generic mammal.
Of this conserved tool kit, some 2 percent consists of known genes and the rest of something else, presumably the regulatory elements of DNA that control the operation of the protein-encoding genes, Dr. Lindblad-Toh said.
The conserved genes probably include those deployed during development to construct the organism, But many regulatory elements also seem to be needed, so as to orchestrate an elaborate succession of genes being switched off and on as new tissues and organs are generated.
Another finding that has emerged from a three-way comparison of dog, mouse and human is that genes for brain function seem to have...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The fact that these sequences are the same in all three animals indicates they could be crucial switches that control the activity of genes, the authors say. The discovery of such 'non-coding' regions, and the quest to find out what they do, is one of the most intriguing questions facing genomicists.
More the better.
" a female boxer whose owners wish to remain anonymous"
Like it matters.
Placemarker
ROTFL!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA
Amazing what modern science does.
Genomes are tiny! Decoding them is hard! =P
Because he can IS the real answer!
I thought the Senators name was Barbra not Tasha.
And who among us hasn't sometimes wished he was a......uh......oh, never mind. *chuckle*
There are more than 400 million dogs in the world.
Why? "Because he can't make a fist".
I'm glad my butt-sniffing gene is turned off. I know in some humans it is replaced by the butt-kissing gene.
Finally, someone understands me.
BWAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....never thought of that one. :-)
The cost for all of this is hideous, and the odds of a pregnancy resulting are notably less than with the "old fashioned" method. But a nice (and apparently prosperous) lady from Warsaw is paying for it. So I won't complain; I'll just be somewhat bemused.
Female boxer. Is her name Barbera ?
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