One of the species whose genome is close to completion is the zebra fish, which has provided deep insights into human embryological development. The mouse is the favorite laboratory research animal of molecular biologists. It is considered to be a key tool in deciphering human genes, and it has already played a major role in helping to identify thousands of human genes. Monday's announcement came at a Washington, D.C., news conference at which competing teams of public and private scientists officially released discoveries from the first close look at the genes that make people. Dr. J. Craig Venter, chief executive officer of Celera Genomics, the private company that is racing the public effort to decode all human genes, said that his company has sequenced all the base pairs that make up mouse DNA, a step that is essential to identifying its genes and learning their function.
Base pairs are chemical subunits that spell out the instructions of genes.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which is spearheading the international public effort to interpret the human genome, said that their group expects to have the mouse sequence completed in April. The reason the mouse genome is so important is that it is expected to share 85 to 90 percent of its genes with humans and they are easier to study than human genes, Collins said. Mouse genes serve as a template for human genes. After a mouse gene has been identified and its function ascertained, scientists can use that information to zero in on its human counterpart. Such information is crucial for molecular biologists to figure out the role genes play in causing genetic diseases, and more importantly how they contribute to such common disorders as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, all of which are thought to be influenced by multiple genes.