MrDarwin

This just in: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9284-2002Dec4.html" target="_blank">Mouse Genetic Code Published</a>

One interesting tidbit:

Edited to add link to a related article: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9055-2002Dec4.html" target="_blank">'Junk DNA' Contains Essential Information</a>

[ December 04, 2002: Message edited by: MrDarwin ]</p>

Doubting Didymus

That 'counterparts', includes pseudogenes, right? If so, its not that amazing. What proportion is the functional similarity?

lpetrich

Actually, it's the mouse genome. Or more precisely, 95% of the genome of the common laboratory mouse, Mus musculus

Here's <a href="http://gnn.tigr.org/articles/12_02/mouse.shtml" target="_blank">another article</a>, from the Genome News Network.

The conservation of genes for making the tail is less surprising than it seems at first glance, since early human embryos have tails that are later resorbed, leaving only the coccyx.

Some creationists go into contortions trying to explain away human-embryonic tails, calling them something like "fatty tumors"; however, they have a suspicious resemblance to structures of embryos of tailed animals that become those animals' tails.

And some interesting differences have been found -- our species has fewer genes related to smell and mating behavior than mice. In fact, our genome has some odor-receptor pseudogenes, suggesting that our ancestors have lost some of their sense of smell over the last several million years.

But some of the noncoding DNA is strongly conserved, and many of these conserved segments are likely to be involved in gene regulation.

As to further progress, a complete version of the mouse-genome sequence ought to be out in 2 or 3 years; a complete version of the human one is expected to be out by April, as I write this.

And there is some work on the genomes of

Chimp
Rat
Cow
Dog

but it is difficult for me to find the precise status of the genome-sequencing projects for these creatures. The rat (common laboratory rat, Rattus norvegicus) is perhaps the farthest along, with sequencing now covering most of the genome, but with little of it assembled.

Doubting Didymus

Who are you contradicting? I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought otherwise.

Considering how pathetic our sense of smell is and how little we rely on it, this was to be expected.

lpetrich

Here's <a href="http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/media/press/pr_02_mousegenome.html" target="_blank">a more detailed article from MIT's Whitehead Institute</a>.

Which was apparently copied from this <a href="http://www.genome.gov/page.cfm?pageID=10005831" target="_blank">NHGRI article</a>. An article which has a sidebar giving some nice background detail on mice as model systems for various human diseases.

[ December 04, 2002: Message edited by: lpetrich ]</p>

lpetrich

MrDarwin had used the phrase "Genetic Code", when what was announced was a genome sequence, not anything on how to translate from genes to features (phenotype).

Doubting Didymus

Surely the phrase 'genetic code' encompasses non-functional code? Just as 'broken' computer code is still code? Am I straying too far into the ugly world of scientific semantics?

Boro Nut

I don't understand why you would need it nowadays as you're much better off with a mobile phone. But if you're interested it's dash dash dot, dot, dash dot, dot, dash, dot dot, dash dot dash dot.

Boro Nut

MrDarwin

lpetrich, I was only quoting the article's title.

Now, if only about 300 unique genes separate mice from humans, and if we assume the two species have diverged approximately equally from a common ancestor about 70 million years ago, that means that it has taken only about 150 brand-new genes, plus minor changes in existing genes, to get from a little mammal similar to a tree shrew to the human species. I'm curious to see what creationists and ID'ers will make of this "information".

MrDarwin

From today's sciencedaily.com:

<a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/12/021205083819.htm" target="_blank">The Mouse Genome And The Measure Of Man</a>