Researchers Add 18 Organisms to Sequencing List

As part of its ongoing contribution toward the understanding of the human genome, the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGR, Bethesda, MD, USA) has announced it will begin sequencing 18 strategically selected organisms.

The first group consists of nine mammals, important for their position on the evolutionary tree. Seven of these will be used primarily to identify features that are similar among the genomes of humans: the savannah elephant, European common shrew, European hedgehog, the guinea pig, the lesser hedgehog tenrec, the nine-banded armadillo, and the rabbit. An eighth mammal, the domestic cat, was selected because of its importance as a medical model for studying disease. The ninth mammal is the orangutan, a primate that is most closely related to humans. The orangutan genome will be used to identify those features in the human genome that differ among primates.

The second group includes nine nonmallalian organisms, each of which represents a position on the evolutionary timeline marked by important changes. These comprise slime mold, a ciliate, a choanoflagellate, a placozoan, a cnidarian, a snail, two roundworms, and the lamprey.

"Science tells us that the most effective approach we currently have to identify the essential functional and structural components of our own genome is to compare it with the genomes of other organisms,” explained Mark S. Guyer, Ph.D., director of NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research. "We hope to accelerate that process with our new sequencing strategy that identifies the organisms, or sets of organisms, with the greatest potential to fill gaps in our knowledge.”




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